Wooded Landscape with Watermill

Meindert Hobbema

c. 1665

Oil on canvas

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A wooded landscape features a watermill and a river with a hunter in the foreground. The sky is filled with dramatic clouds. 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