Artwork
Forest
Forest is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Meindert Hobbema. It dates from 1662 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts a sunlit clearing within a dense woodland where a fisherman rests beside a pond, evoking a harmony between human activity and nature. The surrounding trees frame the scene, emphasizing depth and tranquility, while the composition reflects seventeenth-century Dutch landscape ideals of order and pastoral abundance.
Technique & Style
The work is modest in scale, measuring 34 cm in height by 42 cm in width, and is classified as a landscape painting held in the Hermitage Museum collection.
Forest is an oil painting executed on an oak panel, a support typical of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape production. The work is modest in scale, measuring 34 cm in height by 42 cm in width, and is classified as a landscape painting held in the Hermitage Museum collection. Its subject combines a forest setting with a pond, a fisherman, and a fishing scene, consistent with Hobbema's known landscape idiom.
Stylistically, the composition integrates naturalistic woodland elements with water features, reflecting the Dutch tradition of blending observed nature with carefully arranged motifs. The small panel format and oil medium allow for the detailed handling characteristic of Hobbema's forest scenes.
History & Provenance
Meindert Hobbema created the landscape painting Forest in 1662, an oil on oak panel produced in the Netherlands. Measuring 34 cm in height and 42 cm in width, it depicts a forest scene featuring a man, a pond, and fishing activity, and is now held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum. The available sources confirm its current location and physical dimensions but do not provide a specific inventory or accession number, nor do they list any past or present exhibition history for the piece.
Overview
Meindert Hobbema’s 1662 oil painting Forest presents a tranquil woodland setting. The composition centers on a sizable tree whose branches reach toward the sky, while a calm body of water lies beyond, bordered by additional trees. Figures are positioned near the water, engaged in the act of fishing, adding a subtle narrative element to the natural scene.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Meindert Lubbertszoon Hobbema (bapt. 31 October 1638 – 7 December 1709) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of landscapes, specializing in views of woodland, although his most famous painting, The Avenue at Middelharnis…
