Wooded Landscape with Watermill

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Artist: Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 39 3/8 x 52 3/4 x 1 1/4 in. (100.01 x 133.99 x 3.18 cm) (canvas); 38 5/8 x 52 in. (98.11 x 132.08 cm) (sight)
Museum: Minneapolis Institute of Art
Rights: Public Domain Mark

The enthusiastic sportsman in the bright red coat draws the eye and adds a narrative to the landscape: Has he interrupted his ride to take an opportune shot? Yet he wasn’t in the original painting. He was added later—by another painter, no less—between 1810 and 1828. An 1809 sale catalogue describes the painting without him: “The chef d’oeuvre of this celebrated painter, a beautiful landscape with a water mill—the figures and cattle are judiciously introduced, with appropriate spirit of pencil, by [Nicholas] Berchem.” In 1828, another estate-sale catalogue notes his appearance: “…in the foreground, on the right, a sportsman dressed in red is shooting at wild fowl….”

It’s impossible to know why he was painted in. But sporting subjects were extremely popular in the early 1800s, particularly in England, and the painting’s owner may have requested the addition to increase demand (and therefore its price) at auction.

Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.