Meindert Hobbema Amsterdam 1638 - 1709

Dr. Seymour Maynard;
His sale, Berlin, Lepke, 22 March 1910, lot 87, for DM 7,000;
Marczell von Nemes, Budapest and Munich, 1910;
With Haberstock, Berlin, 1924;
Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza (1875-1947), by 1930;
Thence by descent to his daughter Gabrielle Bentinck-Thyssen;
her sale, London, Sotheby's, 6 December 1995, lot 103, for £ 47,700 (as "Attributed to Meindert Hobbema" and as bearing a Hobbema signature).

Budapest, Szépmüvészeti Museum, Collection des peintures de la collection Marcel de Nemes, 1910-11, no. 33;
Possibly Munich, Alte Pinakothek, June-December 1911;
Munich, Neue Pinakothek, Sammlung Schloß Rohoncz, 1930, p. 46, no. 153;
Bern, Bernisches Historisches Museum, 24 Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei aus der Sammlung Stiftung Schloß Rohoncz. Leihgabe der Baronin Gabrielle Bentinck-Thyssen, Summer 1960, no. 23;
Paris, Institut Néerlandais, Choix de la collection Bentinck, 20 May - 28 June 1970, no. 27, plate 15;
Dusseldorf, Kunstmuseum, Die Sammlung Bentinck-Thyssen, 1970-1, no. 24;
Lausanne, La Fondation de l'Hermitage; Brussels, Palais van Schone Kunsten, La Collection Bentinck-Thyssen. De Brueghel à Guardi, 1986-87, p. 128, no. 43, reproduced;
On loan to the Musée l'Etat, Luxembourg, 1986-95.

 

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. IV, London 1912, pp. 361-2, no. 27 (as an early work, as on panel);
G. von Térey, "Die Sammlung Marczell von Nemes in Budapest", in Kunst und Künstler, vol. IX, 1910-11, p. 223;
R. Heinemann, Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz, Lugano 1937, vol. I, p. 71, no. 192, reproduced vol. II, plate 163;
G. Broulhiet, Meindert Hobbema, 1938, p. 241, no. 325, reproduced p. 264 (as on panel). 

 

Engraved:
By Laviron in the artist's Journal.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The original canvas is lined and the paint surface is stable. There is extensive restoration to the blue of the sky, either side of the cloud, the dark shrinkage cracking is false. The clouds have also been augmented with restoration. The water, lower left, has been extensively retouched also, with more false cracquelure. The houses to the right have abraded paint which has been augmented, along with the shadows in the water and the foliage of the trees."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Dr. Christopher Wright, who has inspected this picture at first hand, considers it to be an autograph work by Hobbema, dating from the end of the 1650s. He compares it with a recently cleaned picture by Hobbema, signed and dated 1659, in the Musee de Grenoble¹. In particular the handling of trees in both this and the Grenoble picture is similar, the branches extending through and beyond the thin foliage.

Bode, who saw the painting at the 1930 exhibition, considered this to be an early work by Hobbema, and it has always been exhibited as such.

The barges moored at the bank support racks facing away from the viewer, on which cloth (perhaps linen) is being dried.

1. inv. no. 670; see M. Destot, Peintures des ecoles du Nord..., 1994, pp. 95-6, reproduced in colour p. 96.