Probably sold Amsterdam, Fouquet;
Probably sold London, Langford, 10-11 February 1773, lot 66;
Sir Ellis Cunliffe, 1st Bt. (1717-1767);
His daughter Mary (d. 1804; and who sat to Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1786-7: see fig. 1), who married Sir Drummond Smith, 1st Bt. (1740-1816);
His elder brother, Joshua Smith (1735-1819);
His daughter, Augusta, who married Charles Smith of Suttons, Essex;
Sir Charles Joshua Smith, 2nd Bt. (1800-1831);
Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith, 3rd Bt. (1827-1905);
Sir Drummond Cunliffe Smith, 4th Bt. (1861-1947);
Sir Drummond Cospatric Hamilton-Spencer-Smith, 5th Bt., O.B.E. (1876-1955);
With Duits, London, 1957;
Private Collection, Belgium;
With Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht, from whom acquired🤪 by the present owner in 2002.

On loan to the Exeter Museum, 1947-1956.

The Art Quarterly, vol. XXI, Summer 1958, p. 219, reproduced p. 221 (as, incorrectly, owned by the Toledo Museum of Art);
W. Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London 1966, pp. 76-77, footnote 50,☂ p. 484, cat. no. 150, reproduced fig. 150 (as, incorrectly, owned by the Toledo Museum of Art).

The following condition report has been provided by Hamish Dewar, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. Structural Condition The artist's panel has been cradled and this is ensuring an even and secure structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer but a film of surface dust. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows: 1) a vertical join in the panel which is approximately 28 cm below the upper horizontal framing edge, which has been retouched along its length, 2) a thin line of retouching covering a crack in the panel in the upper left of the composition which is approximately 30 cm in length and runs through the clouds into the blue sky. This is approximately 10 cm below the upper horizontal framing edge, 3) an area in the upper right of the sky which is approximately 2 x 4.5 cm, 4) retouchings in the upper right corner, and 5) other retouchings throughout the blue sky, and thin vertical lines filling the craquelure pattern throughout the clouds. There is an area in the dark pigments of the trees in the centre of the composition which fluoresces unevenly and in a different manner to the retouching mentioned above, and may or may not be retouching. This is approximately 11 cm in diameter. There is also a thin diagonal line in the upper right of the trees which fluoresces similarly and would appear to cover a scratch. Very few other retouchings are visible in the trees or foreground. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and apart from removing the surface dust, no further work is required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Meindert Hobbema was baptised in Amsterdam on 31 October 1638.  Although his father's name was Lubbert Meyndertsz., he adopted the surname Hobbema.  Hobbema's earliest dated landscape is from 1658 and his work from the same period shows the influence of the Haarlem landscape painters, Cornelis Vroom (1591/92-1661) and Salomon van Ruysdael (circa 1601-1670).  Soon, however, Hobbema's foremost source of inspiration became the work of another Haarlem master, Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682), who by June 1657 had settled in Amsterdam.  In fact, Hobbema worked in the latter's studio, as is evidenced by a document of July 1660, in which Ruisdael states that Hobbema by that time had been his pupil for some two years.  In 1668 the artist became one of the city of Amsterdam's wijnroeiers, officials responsible for the measuring of wine barrels and the determining o♒🤪f their alcoholic content.

Hobbema based his earlier compositions almost invariably on the inventions of his master.  A whole series of Watermills take their direct origin from Ruisdael's painting of 1661 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  Some of these are dated 1662.  They have a dark brown, somewhat glossy appearance, which is characteristic of his work of this period.  The present painting is undated but according to Stechow,¹ also undoubtedly of 1662.

1. See Stechow, under Literature, p. 77.