A Woody Landscape with a Cottage
- Artist: Meindert Hobbema
- Date: about 1665
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Woody Landscape with a Cottage" by Meindert Hobbema. Painted in about 1665, this beautiful landscape showcases the artist's picturesque and harmonious view of the world.
Notice how the painting is full of curves and meanders, even the strong diagonals of the cottage roofline are softened by the surrounding foliage. The composition itself subtly underlines a sense of balance - look at how the canopy of the tallest tree is reflected by the shape of the cloud next to it, and the three figures in the foreground form a neat symmetrical group right on the centre line of the painting.
Hobbema was known for his landscapes, but they were often studio paintings designed to evoke the woodlands around Haarlem near his home town of Amsterdam. This type of specialisation was typical of the time - most artists in seventeenth-century Holland worked in a particular genre. Hobbema had learnt to paint landscapes as an apprentice to Jacob van Ruisdael, but while his teacher's work often captured the energy and drama of the natural world, Hobbema preferred an atmosphere of quiet reflection.
Despite being a valuable resource at the time, there's hardly any hint of economic activity in this painting. We see some fencing, but no sign of domestic animals except for a man with a dog. The other figures are chatting or watching idly from the doorway, adding to the sense of peacefulness and serenity.
See it in person
A Woody Landscape with a Cottage hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
