s pictures proves the esteem in which he was held by his
contemporaries; nevertheless it is evident that the public was slow in
conceding to him the rank which he deserved, for his name is not found
for more than a century after his death in any even of the most
elaborate dictionaries of art, while the catalogues of the most
important picture sales in Holland make no mention of him at all up to
the year 1739; when a picture by him, although much extolled, was sold
for only 71 florins, and even in 1768 one of his masterpieces only
fetched 300 florins. The English were the first to discover his merits.

The peculiar characteristics of this master, who next to Ruisdael, is
confessedly at the head of landscape painters of the Dutch School, will
be best appreciated by comparing him with his rival. In two most
important qualities--fertility of inventive genius, and poetry of
feeling--he is decidedly inferior: the range of his subjects being far
narrower. His most frequent scenes are villages surrounded by trees,
such as are frequently met with in the districts of Guelderland, with
winding pathways leading from house to house. A water-mill occasionally
forms a prominent feature. Often, too, he represents a slightly uneven
country, diversified by groups or rows of trees, wheat-fields, meadows,
and small pools. Occasionally he gives us a view of part of a town, with
its gates, canals with sluices, and quays with houses; more rarely, the
ruins of an old castle, with an extensive view of a flat country, or
some stately residence. In the composition of all these pictures,
however, we do not find that elevated and picturesque taste which
characterises Ruisdael; on the contrary they have a thoroughly
portrait-like appearance, decidedly prosaic, but always surprizingly
truthful. The greater number of Hobbema's pictures are as much
characterized by a warm and golden tone as those of Ruisdael by the
reverse; his greens being yellowish in the lights and brownish in the
shadows--both of singular transparency. In pictures of this kind the
influence of Rembrandt is perhaps perceptible, and they are superior in
brilliancy to any work by Ruisdael. While these works chiefly present us
with the season of harvest and sunset-light, there are others in a cool,
silvery, morning lighting, and with the bright green of spring, that
surpass Ruisdael's in clearness. His woods also, owing to the various
lights that fall on them, are of greater transparenc