A Road winding past Cottages

A road winds past cottages in a Dutch landscape in this 1667 painting by Meindert Hobbema at the National Gallery in London. Hobbema, born in Amsterdam in 1638, studied under Jacob van Ruisdael and became the supreme painter of the wooded Dutch landscape. His Avenue at Middelharnis is one of the most famous landscapes in European painting, but works like this one—quieter, more intimate views of rural roads and scattered cottages—represent the core of his output.

The winding road provides the compositional spine, drawing the eye from foreground into the middle distance where cottages cluster among trees. Hobbema"s palette centers on the greens and browns of Dutch woodland, with a luminous sky occupying the upper third of the canvas. His brushwork renders foliage with a distinctive stippled technique—individual touches of varied green building up the texture of tree canopies. The cottages are rendered with precise, small-scale detail that contrasts with the broader handling of the surrounding trees.