xiv MEINDERT HOBBEMA 411 167. STORMY LANDSCAPE. Sm. 32. In the centre fore- ground is a clump of great trees, the outskirts of a wood on the right. On a path leading through the wood from the right foreground three or four figures stand conversing. Beyond them to the right is a cottage, hidden among the trees. From the left foreground a stream flows to the centre distance. On the farther bank, to the left, is a cottage among trees, with figures on a road leading away into the flat distance. To the right of this road, amid trees, is another cottage near the river bank. Among the bushes on the bank in front is an angler. Storm-clouds in the sky. Somewhat dark on the right, and restless in the lighter passages on the left. One of Hobbema's masterpieces. Signed in full in the right centre at foot, and dated 1663 (apparently though the Academy catalogue gives it as 1665) ; canvas, 37 inches by 50 inches. According to Sm., it was said to have been painted for Hobbema's reception into the Middelburg Academy. Exhibited at the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, London, 1892, No. 71. Sales. P. de Smeth van Alphen, Amsterdam, August I, 1810, No. 40 (3250 florins, La Fontaine). J. B. P. Le Brun, Paris, April 15, 1811 (10,000 francs). In the collection of Cardinal Fesch (Waagen, Suppl. 89-90), but not in the sale of 1845. In the collection of the Marquess of Hertford. In the Wallace Collection, London, 1908 catalogue, No. 75. 1 68. WOODED LANDSCAPE. Sm. 66. A road leading from the centre foreground bends away to the left through a wood, on which the afternoon sun casts a warm glow. In the centre of the middle distance is a large pool which overflows the road and forms a second pool, overgrown with water-plants, in the left foreground, in shadow. A path, branching ofF from the road in front, leads to a dyke on the right, which borders a canal and leads away into the right distance, with fields and hedges beyond it. The left slope of the dyke is covered with trees down to the pool. Beyond these, in the sunlit distance, is a cottage amid trees. In the centre foreground, where the path leaves the road, a man sits on the ground con- versing with a man with a stick, who stands before him to the left. In the left middle distance, under the trees, a man and a woman walk along the road. Beside the pool, at the foot of the dyke, sits an angler. On the dyke, in the right middle distance, are a man, a woman, and a child. Light clouds in the blue sky. The figures are undoubtedly by Hobbema himself; the angler, for instance, was clearly painted with the same brush as the vegetation around him. The same scene as in 171 (Pierpont Morgan). [Compare 194.] Signed in full on the right j canvas, 30 inches by 43 inches. Purchased in Gelderland in 1773 by J. de Vos of Amsterdam, according to the Van Brienen catalogue ; but Sm. says that De Vos bought it in Haarlem a few years before 1835 (for 600 florins). Sale. J. de Vos, Amsterdam, July 2, 1833, No. 16 (i 1,400 florins, Van Brienen).
