Cottages in a Wood

This Cottages in a Wood at the National Gallery shows Hobbema's early mature treatment of his signature theme — the modest rural dwelling embedded in a woodland setting that became his lifelong pictorial obsession. The National Gallery's multiple Hobbemas across different periods allow the museum to present his development from these early woodland cottage subjects through his mature watermill compositions to his late works. His early cottages in woodland are somewhat rougher and more energetic than the polished mature compositions, showing the working-out of the compositional formula that would serve him throughout his productive years.

The cottages are integrated into the woodland with Hobbema's developing skill, the architectural forms and surrounding trees rendered with increasing precision and atmospheric sensitivity.