The Dutch landscape painter, Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), studied and worked in his birthplace of Amsterdam. Though his work reveals the influence of Ruisdael, his teacher and friend, he developed his own distinct manner by the mid 1660s, which centred on a narrow range of subjects and moods. Then, following his marriage in 1668, he became a wine gauger with the Amsterdam customs and excise, and only painted in his spare time. Nevertheless, some of his most distinctive compositions date from this later period. His work was popular with English artists and connoisseurs from the late eighteenth century. However, his outstanding representation in the National Gallery, London, and other native public collections did not develop until the later nineteenth century.