Meindert Hobbema , was a landscape painter of the Dutch school. The facts of his life are somewhat obscure. His chronology and signed pictures substantially contradict each other. According to the latter his practice lasted from 1650 to 1689; according to the former his birth occurred in 1638, his death as late as 1709. If the masterpiece formerly, in the Bredel collection, called A Wooded Stream, honestly bears the date of 1650, or The Cottages under Trees of the Ford collection the date of 1652, the painter of these canvases cannot be Hobbema, whose birth took place in 1638, unless indeed... we admit that Hobbema painted some of his finest works at the age of twelve or fourteen. For a considerable period it was profitable to pass Hobbemas as Ruisdaels, and the name of the lesser master was probably erased from several of his productions. When Hobbema's talent was recognized, the contrary process was followed, and in this way the name, and perhaps fictitious dates, reappeared by fraud.
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| Birthdate: | October 31, 1638 |
| Birthplace: | Amsterdam |
| Date of death: | December 7, 1709 |