Hobbema, Meindert (Kreis/Circle)

Description:

Amsterdam 1638 - 1709
44 x 56 cm
Wooded river landscape with a lumberjack. Oil/panel,remaining signature (?) lower right.
Southern German private collection. Meindert Hobbema remained devoted to pure landscape painting throughout his life. Alongside Jakob van Ruisdael, he is considered the most important Dutch painter of the 17th century in this genre. Hobbema enjoyed little success during his lifetime. It was not until the second half of the 18th century that demand for his paintings increased. At the end of the 19th century, his paintings were particularly sought after on the American and English markets.
The panel presented here, a finely observed Dutch river landscape bathed in early evening light and dominated by two groups of birch trees in the foreground, has unfortunately suffered from heavy soiling and a yellowed varnish, so that at first glance the painted surface appears very unclear and downright blurred. On closer inspection, however, an impressive depth of fine painting becomes apparent, which is also evident in the small details of the horizon line. Even the sky with its modelling of the clouds is solid and stable across the entire area (the parts that have often fallen victim to insensitive cleaning). The figure of a woodcutter enlivens the scene in the lower right third, where traces of an old (original?) signature can also be found.