It is said that every true Hollander can skate. In the winter, when these canals are frozen, young and old go about upon their various errands on skates. It is a common sight then to see women skating to market, carrying upon their heads heavy baskets filled with rolls of butter, cheese, eggs, or other provisions. The children skate to school, and men go about their business in this same pleasant way. It is easy to reach all parts of the village or city by these canals, for there are so many of them; in some cities the people have no streets, but use canals instead.
At the right of our picture we catch a glimpse of a thrifty, well-kept nursery garden full of shrubs and fruit trees, which the man is busily trimming. He works contentedly, for all about him he sees the evidences of prosperity and peace.
Coming toward us along this straight and level road is a huntsman carrying his gun over his shoulder and preceded by his dog. A path leads away from the road to the picturesque little cottage or farmhouse at the right. Two peasants, a man and a woman, stand in the path talking. We do not doubt they will turn to greet our hunter, for it is a friendly countryside, where all are treated cordially.
We cannot see much on the extreme left of the picture except the trees which grow luxuriantly, and a flat meadow land which reaches almost to the village. It is a common, everyday sort of landscape, yet its charm seems to lie in this very fact.
We would know at once if the perspective were not correct, for we have solved just such problems ourselves with the tree tops, or perhaps telegraph poles, and it gives us an added sense of pleasure to be able to understand just the problem Hobbema had to solve as he placed his easel in the middle of the road and started to paint his great canvas.
The light is rather uncertain on this cloudy day. The artist used little color except grays and a peculiar green which he delighted in using in all his paintings. A touch of brighter color appears in the cheerful red of the roofs of his houses, which suggest something of the homely comfort and cleanliness that may be found in most Dutch homes.
The most striking characteristic of Hobbema’s painting is his severe combination of vertical and horizontal lines. The positive vertical lines of the tree trunks standing so tall and straight against the wide expanse of sky are reëchoed in the shorter but equally slender trunks of the fruit trees in the nursery garden, and of the trees at the side of the path leading to the farmhouse; also in the two straight figures standing in the path, and again in the church tower in the distance.
The horizontal lines are equally positive. They separate the garden from the road; they appear in the road itself, and in the horizon line beyond. If we make a sketch of the important lines in this picture, we find them either vertical or horizontal, and much more severe in outline than the usual diagonal or curving lines we have grown accustomed to looking for.
Critics seem to vary as to the feeling with which this picture inspires them, although all agree upon its value as a masterpiece. Some declare there is a sort of hopelessness in the landscape which suggests the unhappy life of the artist, who often went hungry, and whose paintings were not appreciated until after his death. To them the scene is full of hopeless beauty, suggesting all kinds of joys which are never realized, yet continue just out of reach throughout a long and cheerless life. So it is a sad beauty, and gives one a feeling of desolation even in a land where all is prosperity.
Other critics see only the thrifty, contented life of the Netherlands peasant, who by his intelligence and labor has overcome even the sea itself, and compelled it, by means of dikes and canals, to add to his safety and comfort.