A View on a High Road
Meindert Hobbema·1665
Historical Context
Hobbema's View on a High Road from 1665 depicts the Flemish-Dutch straight road lined with trees that was his characteristic setting for a landscape type distinct from his primary woodland subjects. The 'avenue' composition — a road or river receding between rows of trees toward a vanishing point on the horizon — was Hobbema's most geometric invention, anticipating the formal precision of his Avenue at Middelharnis (1689, National Gallery London) that would become his most celebrated work. The road lined with trees creates a rational spatial organization quite different from the organic density of his woodland paintings, demonstrating his range within Dutch landscape conventions.
Technical Analysis
The composition uses the receding road to create strong linear perspective, drawing the eye into the distance. Hobbema renders the flanking trees with his characteristic attention to individual forms, while the road surface and distant landscape are painted with atmospheric breadth. The warm palette and luminous sky create a sense of open, inviting countryside.
Provenance
Mme Jean Etienne Fizeau [née Marie Anne Massé, d. 1790], Amsterdam; (sale, Amsterdam, 27 April 1791);[1] Welbore Ellis Agar [1735-1805], London; by inheritance to his illegitimate sons, Welbore Felix Agar [d. 1836] and Sir Emmanuel Felix Agar [1781-1866]; sold 1806 to Robert Grosvenor, 1st marquess of Westminster [1767-1845];[2] by inheritance to his grandson, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st duke of Westminster [1825-1899], Grosvenor House, London; purchased 1912 by Baron Alfred Charles de Rothschild [1842-1918], London and Halton House, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire;[3] bequeathed to his illegitimate daughter, Almina Victoria, Countess of Carnarvon [c. 1877-1969, later Mrs. Ian Onslow Dennistoun], London; sold 1924 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[4] sold November 1924 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The Fizeau (variously spelled Fiseau, Fezeau, or Fiziau) sale was known to Frits Lugt not from an actual example of the catalogue, but because it is listed in Adriaan van der Willigen, _Naamlijst van Nederlandsche kunst catalogi veelal met derzelver prijzen en namen, van af 1731-1861, welke de verzameling uitmakern van A. van der Willigen_, Haarlem, 1873. [2] The Ellis Agar Collection was to be sold at Christie's, London, 2-3 May 1806, and a sale catalogue was produced, but before the auction could take place the complete collection was instead sold to Lord Grosvenor, for 30,000 guineas (George Redford, _Art Sales, 1628-1887_, 2 vols., London, 1888: 1:95). The bill of sale is preserved at the Grosvenor Estate Office Archive; the Hobbema is number 42 on this list (information kindly provided by Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild, letter of 5 March 2002, in NGA curatorial files). [3] The date of Alfred's acquisition of the picture was kindly provided by Michael Hall, curator to Edmund de Rothschild; see his "Rothschild Picture Provenances" from 1999 and his letter of 27 February 2002, in NGA curatorial files, in which he cites relevant documents in The Rothschild Archive, London. [4] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 292, box 437, folders 4 and 5; copies in NGA curatorial files.
