Minderhout, or Minard, a famous landscape painter of the Flemish school, was born in Antwerp about the beginning of the seventeenth century. His personal history is a total blank. The only fact in it that can be relied on as even approximately true is that he died at a very advanced age in 1699. His landscapes, which are now rather rare, are extremely simple in their structure; but his management of perspective, and his conduct of chiar-oscuro, enable him to express vast distances in a few square feet of Hobbes, canvas, and to imprint a distinctive and marked character on the homeliest scenes. His execution is wonderfully careful, yet so well harmonized, and so light and graceful, that each separate piece is in itself a perfect gem of art. His style bears so strong a resemblance to that of Ruysdael that many of his pieces pass under that artist's name. The figures in many of Hobbema's pieces were supplied by Teniers and Ostade, which has contributed greatly to enhance their value. Some of his chef d'oeuvres are in this country, his best authentic pieces being in the galleries of the Peel family.