Art Institute of Chicago

The Watermill with the Great Red Roof

Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709)LinkedCulture matchlcp-d1d7a153235d

Date: c. 1665
Medium: Oil on canvas
Culture: Holland
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 869

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

A pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael , Meindert Hobbema often borrowed motifs from his teacher, such as the watermill seen here. Watermills, which Hobbema employed more than 30 times in his paintings and which abounded along country waterways, would have been understood as symbols of human transience and Dutch industriousness. The well-dressed figures farther along the path at the left are intended to suggest the rewards of productivity and diligence.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan
Provenance: Possibly John Ellis, London 1755 [according to Smith 1835]. Possibly Lord Mount Temple [Hofstede de Groot cites Durand Ruel as the source of this information]. Durand-Ruel, Paris, by 1890; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 1890, together with a group of Dutch and Flemish paintings, many from the Demidoff collection, using funds advanced by four trustees and reimbursed through the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan in 1903 [sale agreement in Art Institute Archives; in the case of 1894.1031, there is no evidence that it was in the Demidoff collection].