Meindert Hobbema (baptized October 31, 1638, Amsterdam, - died December 7, 1709, ibid.) - the most significant master of the Dutch landscape after his mentor, Jacob van Ruysdal. It is known that Hobbema and Ryusdal traveled together and made sketches from nature . In November 1668, Hobbema married the cook of the Amsterdam mayor and through it gained the post of checking the quality of imported wines. For a long time it was thought that his studies of painting had ceased on this. Perhaps he had to devote less time to painting than before, but his best work, "The Middelharnis Avenue", dated 1689, and another London painting, "The Ruins of the Castle of Brederode" , - 1671 year. These later things belong to the most successful accomplishments of Dutch landscape painting and, in fact, draw a line in its development. The artist died in poverty, but already in the 18th century he was imitated a lot, and his works became the subject of competition among collectors. In contrast to Ruysdal, who preferred to capture wildlife, Hobbem was attracted to quiet rural scenes with views of sunlit villages, given to the diversity of the towering here and there groups of trees. In these rural idylls everything is written out with great care, especially the foliage. Despite his remarkable talent, he was not appreciated by his contemporaries. Hobbema, without having the opportunity to acquire sufficient means of living with artistic work, was to be detrimental to the latter in 1668 Mr .. in the jury measurers brought to Amsterdam foreign liquids (wine, oil, etc.) and carry this post until the end of their days. The offspring were at first as unfair to him as his contemporaries: his name came almost completely oblivious, and his paintings were sold for insignificant money or turned into the hands of falsifiers in the false landscapes of Yevgeny V. Raisdal, similar to him. Only since the 40s of the current century, Hobbema began to enjoy the honor and soon entered the art lovers, especially among the British, in a fashion that his paintings, sold in the XVIII century. for some dozens of florins, reached a huge price of 45,000, 60,000, 75,000, 130,000 francs. To own at least one work of Hobbema is now the pride of every collector of ancient paintings and public museums. Such an addiction to a recently forgotten artist can not be overemphasized; nevertheless, he should be considered one of the most important painters of the Dutch school, the last major representative of the national-naturalistic trend in her landscape.
