Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 6) (London: Smith and Son, 1835)

M1NDERH0UT HOBBEMA.

bo little impresssion did the works of this now highly
appreciated landscape painter make, during his life, on
the minds of his countrymen, that his appearance in,
and departure from, the world, passed unnoticed like
that of an ordinary person. Hence, neither the time
nor the place of his birth has been clearly ascertained.
Pilkington states as an opinion, that he was born
at Antwerp, about the year 1611 ; another writer
supposes him to have been a native of Haarlem, and
fixes the period of his birth in 1629. The latter
account is by far the most probable; as it is generally
allowed that he was a Dutchman, and not a Fleming.
The accuracy of the latter time is also, in a great
measure, supported by the dates on his pictures. The
same biographer supposes that he derived his know-
ledge of painting from Solomon Ruysdael. Van
Eynden and Vander Willegen (authors of a Dutch
Dictionary of Painters, published in 1816), state that
Hobbema was born in the village of Coeverden*, in

* A Dutch gentleman, extensively conversant in the arts, informed
the writer that the name of the village was Middelharnis.