- Collection Hendrik Muilman (1743-1812), Baanderheer van Haamstede

- His sale, Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 12 April 1813 sqq., nr. 63 (‘Dit fraai en bevallig Land- en Riviergezigt, met verscheide Geboomte, vertoont zich in het Water een Schuitje met drie Lieden; op den voorgrond liggen stammen van Geboomte, en verder ziet men een aangenaam verschiet, waarbij eenige Gebouwen […] hoog 13 ½, breed 15 duimen. [34.7 x 38.6 cm] Paneel’), fl. 640,

- Thomas Theodore Cremer (1743-1815), Wijnhaven, Rotterdam

- His sale, on the premises (Nozeman et al.), 16 April 1816 sqq., nr. 35 (‘Een landschap waarin eene groote partij boomen, krachtig en warm van toon, tegen eene heldere lucht uitkomen. Het land is doorsneden van eene rivier welke zich uitsterkt tot in het verschiet, en is gestoffeert met een schuitje en eenige figuren – De voorgrond is rijk versierd met planten, boomstammen en struiken […] Hoog 12 ¼  breed 14 ½ duim [32 x 37.8 cm]’), fl. 1,300

- Van Os

- Sale, [Eppo Jurjans (?-?)], Amsterdam (P. van der Schley et al.), 28 August 1817, nr. 24 (‘In dit allerverrukkelijkste Land- en Watergezigtje ziet men de natuur als overgedrukt. Een schuitje in het water en het welige geboomte, waarachter men eene heldere zonneschijn, zoo op het weiland als op eene stad in het geboomte liggende, gewaar wordt, is alles meesterlijk schoon, zoo van kleur als van behandeling […] hoog 12 ½ , breed 15 duimen [32.1 x 38.6 cm].’), fl. 1,610

- Jeronimo de Vries (1776-1853), Amsterdam

- Collection Jan Brouwer Ancher (1773-1846), Amsterdam

- His sale, Amsterdam (J. de Vries et al.), Amsterdam, 6 April 1847, nr. 26 (‘Dit uitmuntende Kabinetstukje stelt voor een Geldersch Landschapje, waarschijnlijk in de Betuwe. De hoofdgroep is een digt beplante plek gronds met dartel opgaande eikenboome, welkers sprong of uitslag tegen de lucht, door dezen kunstschilder, op zijne hem zoo eigen en bevallige manier, ongemeen fraai is uitgedrukt; deze partij spiegelt zich in eene heldere beek, welke, gestoffeerd met eene schuit, waarin drie personen, langs den met kreupelhout begroeiden voorgrond, kronkelend naar den tweeden grond loopt, daar ontdekt men eene snel door de zon verlichte weide, en over dezelve heen vertoont zich een dorpstoren, omringd van geboomte; de bewolkte lucht geeft een hoog natuurlijk effect aan het geheel, hetwelk onder de edelste, beste en helderste stukken van dezen hooggeroemden kunstenaar kan worden geteld […] hoog 30 d., breed 38 d. Paneel’) fl. 3,415

- Dealer Albertus Brondgeest (1786-1849), Amsterdam

- From whom, 1847, to the dealer John Chaplin (b. 1788), London

- Thomas Baring, M.P. (1799-1873), London and later Stratton Park, Hampshire

- His nephew, Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826-1904), London and Stratton Park

- His son, Francis George Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook (1850-1929), London and Stratton Park

- His second wife, Florence Anita Baring, Countess Northbrook (1860-1946), by whom sold c. 1930

- Collection Dr. Cornelis Johannes Karel van Aalst (1866-1939), Hoevelaken

- His son Dr Nicolaas Johannes van Aalst (1891-1965), Rotterdam

- Sale, C.J.K. van Aalst [‘sold at auction by order of his son’], London (Christie’s), 1 April 1960, nr. 24, gns. 140 or £14,700

- Where acquired by a member of the family of Franz Koenigs (1881-1941), and then by descent

- New York, Masterpieces of Art Building, The World’s Fair, 1939, nr. 192 (see label on the reverse)

- San Francisco, CA, The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Seven

- Centuries of Painting: a loan exhibition of Old and Modern Masters, 29 December 1939-28 January 1940, nr. L-65

- Springfield, The Museum of Fine Arts; St Louis, Minneapolis; Los Angeles;

- Newark; and Toledo, on travelling loan, 1940 (see label on the reverse)

- Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, on long term loan, 1940-60

- J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 8 vols. and a supplement, London 1829-42, VI, p. 126, nr. 40

- G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 4 vols., London 1854, II (1854), p. 187

- J.A. Crowe (ed.), Handbook of painting: The German, Flemish, and Dutch schools: Based on the Handbook of Kugler: re-modelled by the late Dr Waagen, 2 vols., London 1879, II, p. 478

- W.H. James Weale and J.P. Richter, A descriptive catalogue of the collection of pictures belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, London 1889, p. 49, nr. 62

- C. Hofstede de Groot, Kritisches und bescheibendes Verzeichnis der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen and Paris 1907-28, IV (1911), pp. 455-56, nr. 260

- G. Broulhiet, Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), Paris 1938, pp. 330, 438, nr. 456

- J.W. von Moltke and W.R. Valentiner, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters in the

- Collection of Dr C.J.K. van Aalst, Huis-te-Hoevelaken 1939, p. 162, pl. XXXVIII

In the 1650s Hobbema trained with Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-82). By 1658 he was signing and dating paintings of his own. These were still very much indebted to Ruisdael and they recall the older masters Cornelis Vroom (1590/92-1661) and Salomon van Ruysdael (1600-03-70). It would take some years before Hobbema became Hobbema, so to speak. Hobbema specialized in wooded views from the outset and remained a painter of trees. But around 1662 something remarkable happened. Hobbema’s art attained an unprecedented lightness, conveyed through a rich palette, a new spatial freedom and a fluid almost virtuoso handling of the brush. It was this contribution to Dutch landscape painting that secured his place in the canon.[1] Furthermore, his innovation of opening up the landscape gave rise to a series of glorious masterpieces from 1663, among which two large, dated ones in Washington and Dublin deserve mention.[2] The present intimate woodland scene, which ranks among his finest works, is a far cry from the just-mentioned complex and ambitious works. Particularly striking is the looseness of execution. The overwhelming sense of space which belies the panel’s small size is again created by a clearing. The screen of trees in the right middle ground is drawn back like a curtain to allow an uninterrupted view on the brightly illuminated distance with the tower of Deventer’s Lebuinuskerk. The compositional layout of our painting can be traced back to Ruisdael’s small River Landscape with Angler, the “Grote Kerk” of Naarden Beyond which itself is an early work by this master from around 1649 (fig. 1) and which Hobbema had copied around 1660 (fig. 2; inv. 30).

Fig. 1, Jacob van Ruisdael, River Landscape with Angler,

the “Grote Kerk” of Naarden Beyond, canvas 26.5 x 38 cm.

Private collection

Fig. 2, Meindert Hobbema after Jacob van Ruisdael,

River Landscape with Angler, the “Grote Kerk” of Naarden Beyond,

panel 46.7 x 67.3 cm. Glasgow, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

The differences, however, speak volumes, the sophisticated organization of space of our painting being the most compelling. Ruisdael’s emotionally charged vision of nature has been supplanted with a rococo-like freshness. Hobbema’s small work has the spontaneity of a study or sketch. It is marked by a skillful use of soft rhythms in the shapes of trees that are echoed in the cloudscape. The tonal richness of greens in the foliage and crisp alla prima brushwork lend this view an irresistible charm. These hallmarks argue for a date of around 1665, when Hobbema was at the peak of his artistic powers.

It was probably in the early 1660s that Hobbema travelled through the Veluwe to Germany, stopping in Deventer and Ootmarsum in the province of Overijssel along the way, a trip on which he may have been accompanied by his friend and fellow landscapist Jan van Kessel (1641-80).[3] Hobbema recorded the topographical impressions from these travels in drawings. The clearest example showing actual topographical details is the rare sheet in Paris which shows the apse of the Bergkerk and a watermill in Deventer.[4] Hobbema devoted a few paintings to this region, one of them being the Landscape near Deventer in The Hague of 1662-63, which shows the towers of the city’s Bergkerk (fig. 3).[5] The harvest of motifs from these travels remained an important source for Hobbema for many years after his return to Amsterdam, although the topographical motifs are usually tucked away in the background. Among his rare late paintings is the 1680 Landscape with a View of the Bergkerk, Deventer in Edinburgh.[6]

Fig. 3, Meindert Hobbema, Landscape near Deventer,

panel 55 x 69.5 cm. The Hague, Mauritshuis

Our painting boasts an excellent provenance, illustrating its status as one of Hobbema’s top pieces. Among others, Wooded River Landscape with a Punt, Deventer in the Distance was part of the illustrious collection of the banker Hendrik Muilman.[7] Muilman loved landscapes. Roughly half of his collection were landscape views, among them four Ruisdaels. The next owner was the Rotterdam businessman and collector Thomas Theodore Cremer whose collection also included masterpieces such as Gerrit Dou’s Watchdog now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (inv. L-R 250.2017). The British banker Thomas Baring was one of the greatest collectors of his era and a scion of a family that like the Rothschilds was already famous for collecting. Thomas Baring focused on Italian and Spanish painting but his holdings of Dutch pictures were equally impressive. A much later owner, Dr Cornelis Johannes Karel van Aalst, was also an indiscriminate collector and banker, notably the director of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, the forerunner of ABN-AMRO. He also was one of the leading Dutch collectors in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1912 he bought the Deutz House (also known as the “Huis met de Kolommen” [House with the columns]), Amsterdam, which he donated in 1920 to the city and which is serving as the burgomaster of Amsterdam’s official residence since.

Further evidence of the success of Hobbema’s painting are the copies that are recorded, a good and early one of which is in Philadelphia.[8] In his monograph with catalogue raisonné, Georges Broulhiet also published a closely related, signed landscape, formerly with the dealer Douwes, in Amsterdam, with two fishermen along the edge of the water and different buildings in the distance. The connoisseur Cornelis Hofstede de Groot mentions a painting that may be identical with one of the versions above, sold from the collection of Professor A.W. Freund in Amsterdam on 20 February 1906, as well as a copy in watercolour by Gerardus Johannes Verburgh (1775-1864) executed while the painting was in Thomas Theodore Cremer’s collection.[9]

Notes