Road in the Woods

Artist Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638 - 1709)

Date1670s

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 37 x 51 3/16 inches (93.98 x 130.02 cm)
Framed: 50 1/16 x 63 15/16 x 5 3/8 inches (127.16 x 162.4 x 13.65 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-76

Signedl.r.: "M Hobbema"

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionThick wood fills breadth of the picture. A road leads away from the center through the wood. On the road is a wagon, in front of which are two dogs and a man riding a gray horse; in the foreground walk a man and a woman, arm-in-arm; to their left is a hunter clad in red jacket and preceded by two dogs. At left amidst the trees the façade of a wooden cottage is seen; at the door a woman converses with another woman carrying child on back with another standing by her side. At the right is a small wooden hut housing hay.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Hudson-Fulton Celebration, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, September–November 1909, no. 52.

Exhibition of Dutch painting, Royal Academy, London, 1929, no. 110.

Landscape Painting, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, November 8, 1945–January 1, 1946.

Dutch 17th-Century Painting, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, November 10–December 30, 1951.

Gallery Label

Characteristic of his preference for simple, country settings, Hobbema depicts a quiet, woodland cottage illuminated by golden sunlight as shadows gather from billowing cumulus clouds overhead. Hobbema had little success as a painter in his own lifetime. After 40 years of working in the wine trade to support his career as an artist, he and his wife died as paupers. However, his bucolic scenes became very popular both in England and America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This painting was purchased in 1931 from the celebrated and flamboyant British art dealer Lord Duveen, who placed it in this elaborate frame inspired by an 18th-century French original from the period of Louis XV.

Provenance

Charles Ferdinand d'Artois, Duc de Berry (1778-1820), Paris, by 1820;

Inherited by his wife, Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), Paris, 1820-April 4, 1837;

Purchased at her sale, Tableaux de l’école hollandaise, flamande et française : provenant de l’ancienne Galerie du Palais de l’Élysée, Paris, April 4, 1837, lot 69, by Anatole Demidoff, 1st Prince of San Donato (1813-1870), Polverosa, Italy, 1837-1868;

George J. Gould (1864-1923), Lakewood, NJ, by 1912-1923;

Gould estate, New York, 1923-March 21, 1925;

Purchased from the Gould estate by Duveen Brothers, New York, stock book New York 1925, no. 28338, March 21, 1925-1931;

Purchased from Duveen Brothers by The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931.

Published References

C. Harmand, Manuel de l'amateur des arts dans Paris, pour 1824 : contenant la description complète des Musées royaux, et Galeries et Collections publiques et particulières, et de tout ce qui a rapport aux arts du dessin (Paris: Pélicier, 1824), 133.

John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 6 (London: Messrs. Smith, 1836), no. 107, pp. 152–153.

Willem R. Valentiner, ed. Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 1, Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings by Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1909), 52–53, (repro.).

Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d'art faites en France et à l'étranger pendant les XVIIIe et XIXe siècles: tableaux, dessins, estampes, aquarelles, miniatures, pastels, gouaches, sépias, fusains, émaux, éventails peints et vitraux (Paris: C. de Vincenti, 1911), 449.

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, Based on the Works of John Smith, ed. and trans. Edward G. Hawke, vol. 4 (London: MacMillan, 1912), no. 113, pp. 391–292.

Exhibition of Dutch Art 1450-1900, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy, 1929), 59.

“A Treasure Island of Art Masterpieces,” The Kansas City Visitor (October 1931): unpaginated, (repro).

“Dine with Art Trustees: Institute Board Bids Others to Annual Meeting Tonight,” Kansas City Times (April 4, 1931): unpaginated.

Art News 29 (April 11, 1931): 6, (repro).

Art Digest 5 (May 1, 1931): 6, (repro).

Art Digest 8 (December 1, 1933): 20, (repro.).

Art News 32 (December 9, 1933): 38, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 28, (repro.).

Georges Broulhiet, Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709) (Paris: Firmin-Didot et Cie, 1938), 207, 405, (repro.).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2^nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 65, (repro).

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 80, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 101, (repro.).

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 115, (repro.).

Peter C. Sutton, A Guide to Dutch Art in America (Washington D.C.: The Netherlands – American Amity Trust, 1986), 125.

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