A Water-Mill

This 1664 Water-Mill at the Toledo Museum of Art was painted during Hobbema's most accomplished period, and its presence in an Ohio museum documents the American collecting of Dutch Golden Age painting in the early twentieth century. The Toledo Museum, built through the philanthropy of Edward Drummond Libbey, assembled an important collection of European Old Masters that included significant examples of Dutch landscape painting. Hobbema's water-mills found particularly eager American collectors, both in private collections and in the great public museums established by industrial philanthropists, making American institutions essential repositories of his work alongside the British and Dutch museums that hold the largest concentrations.

The watermill is rendered with the precise craftsmanship of Hobbema's peak years, every detail of the mill structure, flowing stream, and surrounding trees painted with the meticulous observation that characterized his best work.