A straight dirt road lined with poplar trees leads appealingly away towards a village in the distance. Neatly dug ditches on either side carry water past pristine orchards of carefully pruned trees.

A huntsman with his gun resting on his shoulder saunters towards us, his dog at his heels. On the right is a large barn (used for drying a vegetable dye called 'madder'). Just to the left of the barn, the masts of ships are visible - Middelharnis has a little harbour.

'The Avenue at Middelharnis' was painted in 1689 by Meindert Hobbema. Once a pupil of the great landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael, Hobbema had long since given up painting as a profession, and yet he managed to create one of the most popular landscapes of the period.

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