The old oak
1662

Meindert HOBBEMA

Medium: oil on canvas
Measurements: 101.0 × 144.0 cm
Inscription: inscribed in brown paint l.c.l.: M. Hobbema. / F (dot) 1662
Accession Number: 2252-4
Department: International Painting
Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1950
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location: 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
Provenance: Collection of Jonkheer (Lord/Sir) Alberda, Castle Dijksterhuis, Pieterburen, 1829 collection of Alberda van Menkema family, Castle Dijksterhuis, Pieterburen 1834 from whom purchased by van Arnhem and Goekinga, Groningen, 1834 collection of Colonel de Bire, Brussels (collection assembled by Heris) by 1841 de Bire/Heris sale, Bonnefons, Paris, 25 March 1841, no. 1 as L’arbre renversé (bought in) private collection, France sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 25 May 1945 with Thomas Agnew &amp Sons (dealer), London, by 1949 from where acquired for the Felton Bequest, 1949.

: Around 1655, Meindert Hobbema became one of the few apprentices to enter the studio of the landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael. Ruisdael had a profound effect on Hobbema’s work, with the two artists often portraying the same scenes. Hobbema specialised in producing heavily wooded landscapes, which were romantic in character like those of his master, although Hobbema did not imbue his works with the same degree of drama or eerie atmosphere as did Ruisdael.

Frame

Hobbema The old oak, 1662, was reframed in 2003.
The former frame on the painting had been cut down radically on the two vertical sides compressing the ornament and disturbing the proportions of the frame.
The new frame was selected from a range of Dutch seventeenth century forms utilising a broad, low relief profile with detail on the inner half and a broad flat scotia section in the outer half.
The frame was made from coachwood (pink sycamore) and ebonised using a series of stained layers.
Framemaker: Reproduction - crafted by the NGV
Date: 2003
Materials: Ebonised coachwood (pink sycamore).