DOI Kapitel:
Minderhout Hobbema
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62940#0128
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MINDERHOUT HOBBEMA.
inferior pictures, however, may be censured for a
predominance of brown tints, especially in the shadows
(doubtless the effect of time), and sometimes a tendency
to a cold gray prevails. There is also occasionally a
ruggedness in the forms of the trees, as if vegetation
were stunted, which, being frequently repeated, gives
an ignoble appearance to nature, and shows a want of
taste and selection in the artist.
Hobbema was unskilful in painting figures ; in order
to obviate this deficiency, he had recourse to the assist-
ance of contemporary artists. Adrian Vander Velde,
Philip and Peter Wouwermans, Berghem, Linglebach,
Stork, Helstockade, B. Gael, and Helmbreker, have
each contributed their talents to enrich and enliven
his pictures with figures and cattle. This circumstance
serves to prove that he lived at or near Haarlem ; at
the same time it shows that his works were held in
considerable estimation by the best artists of his time,
with whom he must have been on the most friendly
terms. It is therefore surprising that his name is not
found registered in the Haarlem Club of Painters of
that period. It may seem inconsistent with the truth
of the above statement, that his countrymen should
think lightly of his performances, but such appears to
be the case; for otherwise he would have been noticed
by the writers of that time. Another fact is equally
extraordinary; his name does not appear in any
biographical dictionary during a century after. The
opinion of their indifference to his merits is farther
corroborated by the insignificant prices for which
his pictures sold in sales even down to the end of the
eighteenth century. For instance, a capital landscape
MINDERHOUT HOBBEMA.
inferior pictures, however, may be censured for a
predominance of brown tints, especially in the shadows
(doubtless the effect of time), and sometimes a tendency
to a cold gray prevails. There is also occasionally a
ruggedness in the forms of the trees, as if vegetation
were stunted, which, being frequently repeated, gives
an ignoble appearance to nature, and shows a want of
taste and selection in the artist.
Hobbema was unskilful in painting figures ; in order
to obviate this deficiency, he had recourse to the assist-
ance of contemporary artists. Adrian Vander Velde,
Philip and Peter Wouwermans, Berghem, Linglebach,
Stork, Helstockade, B. Gael, and Helmbreker, have
each contributed their talents to enrich and enliven
his pictures with figures and cattle. This circumstance
serves to prove that he lived at or near Haarlem ; at
the same time it shows that his works were held in
considerable estimation by the best artists of his time,
with whom he must have been on the most friendly
terms. It is therefore surprising that his name is not
found registered in the Haarlem Club of Painters of
that period. It may seem inconsistent with the truth
of the above statement, that his countrymen should
think lightly of his performances, but such appears to
be the case; for otherwise he would have been noticed
by the writers of that time. Another fact is equally
extraordinary; his name does not appear in any
biographical dictionary during a century after. The
opinion of their indifference to his merits is farther
corroborated by the insignificant prices for which
his pictures sold in sales even down to the end of the
eighteenth century. For instance, a capital landscape