Not bad for a someone who only painted in their spare time. Hobbema was a pupil of the Jacob van Ruisdael, Holland's most famous landscape painter, but got himself a well-paid job with the Wine Importers Association of Amsterdam in 1668.
This is his masterpiece, and depicts the village and church at Middelharnis in the south of Holland - if you visit today it looks just the same. Hobbema used the simple device of the avenue to create a quick recession from foreground to background, drawing us into this wide and flat landscape through linear perspective.
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