Landscape with water and trees

This 1658 Landscape with Water and Trees at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is an early work from when Hobbema was most closely under Ruisdael's influence, before his personal style had fully developed. The Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam holds significant Dutch Golden Age collections alongside Flemish and later European works, and this early Hobbema can be seen there in relation to the broader development of Dutch landscape painting from which it emerged. The combination of water reflection and woodland in this early work already demonstrates the visual interests he would develop more fully in his mature compositions of the early 1660s.

The interplay of water and woodland is rendered with the careful observation characteristic of Hobbema's early maturity, the reflective water surface adding depth and luminosity to the wooded scene.