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Your galleryThe Watermill with the Great Red Roof
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Watch the water pour through the sluice beside the two wheels into the still pond, then find the figure in red on the path at the left.
Hobbema took the watermill from his teacher, Jacob van Ruisdael, and painted it more than 30 times. The Art Institute of Chicago explains that viewers would have understood watermills as symbols of passing time and of Dutch hard work, while the well-dressed walkers on the path at left hint at the rewards of diligence.
Oil on canvas · 81.3 × 110 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Realism · Dutch Golden Age
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Details and source
- Museum title
- The Watermill with the Great Red Roof
- Artist
- Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709)
- Date
- c. 1665
- 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.)
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Art Institute of Chicago
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.