The Watermill with the Great Red Roof
Meindert Hobbema
1660–1670
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 81.3 × 110 cm (32 × 43 1/4 in.); Framed: 101.3 × 130.5 × 8.3 cm (39 7/8 × 51 3/8 × 3 1/4 in.)
- Genre
- oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
paintingpaintChicago World's FairscanvasCentury of Progressoil on canvaswaterfigureoil paint (paint)painting (image making)17th Centurypainting techniquesWindmillbuildingducksmanworld's fairscloudslandscapesoil paintingtreeseuropean paintingRealismriver
About
A pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema often borrowed motifs from his teacher, such as the watermill seen here. Watermills, which Hobbema employed more than 30 times in his paintings and which abounded along country waterways, would have been understood as symbols of human transience and Dutch industriousness. The well-dressed figures farther along the path at the left are intended to suggest the rewards of productivity and diligence.
