Meindert Hobbema

Dorothee Henriette Marie-Louise, Baroness van Tuyll van Serooskerken née Baroness de Pagniet (1751-1836);
Her posthumous sale, Utrecht, Notaris G.H. Stevens, 26 July 1836, lot 7, for 402 florins (to Gruijter);
W. de Gruijter, Amsterdam, 1882;
His posthumous sale, Amsterdam, Roos, 24-25 October 1882, lot 36;
Edward Warneck, 1911;
His sale, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 27 May 1926, lot 49;
Anonymous sale ("The Property of a European Noble Family"), London, Christie's, 5 July 1996, lot 22;
David Koetser, 1999.

Paris, Musée du Jeu de Paume, Exposition des grands et petits maîtres hollandais du XVIIe siècle organisée sous le haut patronage de sa majesté la Reine des Pays-Bas par la revue "L'Art et les Artistes", 28 April - 10 July 1911, p. 14, cat. no. 71;
Baltimore 1999, no. 23A. 

A. Dayot, Grands & petits maîtres hollandais, Paris 1911, p. 130, no. 72, reproduced between pp. 24 and 25;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné...,vol. IV, London 1912, p. 372, cat. no. 60a;
G. Broulhiet, Meindert Hobbema, Paris 1938, p. 398, cat. no. 172, p. 398, reproduced, p. 188;
W. Stechow, "The Early Years of Hobbema", in The Art Quarterly, 22, Spring 1959, p. 16, footnote 5;
Baltimore 1999, cat. no. 23A. 

The following condition report has been provided by Karen Thomas of Thomas Art Conservation LLC., 336 West 37th Street, Suite 830, New York, NY 10018, 212-564-4024, info@thomasartconservation.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is in very good condition overall, with isolated areas of wear, noted below. Retouching, clearly visible under ultra-violet illumination, primarily addresses wood grain showing through the paint in the sky and in a portion of the cottage's thatched roof. Islands of abrasion in the sky have been glazed with restoration paints. This abrasion is likely attributable to past cleaning efforts having affected the most thinly-painted portions of the painting where the artist intended the warm ground layer to show through the paint slightly. Two small, insignificant losses are located in the foreground. The horizontally-grained wood panel support, comprised of a single board, is planar and retains its original verso surface and beveled edge. Three labels and a stencil in black paint are visible on the reverse. Non-original strips of unpainted wood approximately 1cm wide are attached to the perimeter. This painting has recently been cleaned and restored and is in no need of further intervention.
"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."

Hobbema's Cottage at the edge of a wood is an early work, displaying a formative and elegant style not yet fully under the direct influence of his teacher Jacob van Ruisdael. The picture is signed twice, at the lower left and right corners; this seems to be unique in Hobbema’s catalogue. Both signatures appear to be period to the picture, and the right hand signature has been scratched directly into the wet paint. The style of both signatures are a key element in dating this early work, as they both adhere to the manner in which Hobbema signed only prior to 1659, with a ligature "MH" following the family name. Wolfgang Stechow was the first to recognize the importance of this dating pattern in his seminal 1959 The Art Quarterly article on the early work of Hobbema. In it he correctly recognized that Hobbema’s earliest dated painting, a River Scene (1658; Detroit Institute of Arts, acc. no. 89.38) bears the same signature as the present painting. He further identified five paintings with the same style of signature, that all date based on stylistic grounds to 1659 or earlier. No firmly dated paintings from 1662 onward use the present form of signature. It is therefore likely that this picture was executed circa 1658-1661. 

A note on the Provenance:
Dorothee Henriette Marie-Louise, Baroness van Tuyll van Serooskerken, née Baroness de Pagniet was married to Vincent Maximilian Baron van Tuyll van Serooskerken (1747-1794) a Dutch luitenant-kolonel der cavalerie, later kolonel commandant.