HOBBEMA, MEYNDERT (1638-1709), Dutch land scape painter, was born at Amsterdam in 1638 and lived there all his life. He was a friend, and probably the pupil, of Jacob van Ruisdael. The two artists made sketching tours together and often painted the same views. Thus Ruisdael's "Water Mill" at Amsterdam, and Hobbema's "Water Mill" in the Widener col lection; Ruisdael's "Ruins of the Castle of Breberode" in the Northbrook collection, and Hobbema's on the same subject in the Wallace and Frick collections. These were painted during 1661-63. In Oct. 1668, Ruisdael was a witness to the marriage between Hobbema and the cook of the Burgomaster of Amster dam. This marriage marked the end of Hobbema's artistic career, for through the position and influence of his wife he received a municipal appointment. He had henceforth to gauge the casks, in which wine was imported into Holland, and estimate their con tents in the Amsterdam measure ; and he had no more time for painting. He was, however, not able to amass a fortune, for when his wife died in 1704 she was buried as a pauper, and Hobbema himself was buried in December 1709 in the pauper section of the Westerkerk cemetery at Amsterdam.
Hobbema's artistic activity was confined to his youth. Unlike Ruisdael who liked to paint the sea, the mountain torrent and rocky landscape, Hobbema's favourite motive is the country side, more or less thickly studded with trees, with houses, churches and ruined castles. A peaceful stream with a water-mill enlivens the landscape. His pictures are rich in attractive details. His masterpiece is "The Avenue, Middelharnis," in the National Gallery, London. It is signed and dated 16-9. The mutilated third figure, according to Hofstede de Groot, was 6 and not 8 as suggested in the catalogue. But external evidence such as the height of the trees, which were planted in 1664, and the beacon at the harbour entrance, which was introduced in 1682 according to local records, seem to favour the allocation of the picture to a later date, although on stylistic evidence it seems improbable that anyone who had abandoned painting at the age of 3o should at the age of 5o be capable of producing such a masterpiece. Hobbema's other masterpieces were painted between 1663-69. Among them are "a wooded landscape with two cows," in the collection of O. Beit, London. The cows are painted by Adrian van de Velder. A similar landscape is in the Morgan collection. New York. "The Mill" is in the Louvre, and there are various examples in the Wallace collection and in the National Gallery.
He is represented in most European galleries and in many private collections. There are from 18o to 200 works by the master extant.
See Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of Dutch Painters (1912).