The Watermill with the Great Red Roof (c. 1665): Artwork and History

The Watermill with the Great Red Roof (c. 1665) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

A pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema often borrowed motifs from his teacher, such as the watermill seen here. Watermills, which Hobbema employed more than 30 times in his paintings and which abounded along country waterways, would have been understood as symbols of human transience and Dutch industriousness. The well-dressed figures farther along the path at the left are intended to suggest the rewards of productivity and diligence.

Object facts

• Title: The Watermill with the Great Red Roof
• Date: c. 1665
• Artist attribution: Meindert Hobbema (Dutch, 1638–1709)
• Place of origin: Holland
• 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.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1894.1031

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.