Melchior de Hondecoeter

(Utrecht 1636–1695 Amsterdam)
A hunting prey with a pigeon, goldfinch and other birds and hunting equipment on a stone ledge,
oil on canvas, 65.5 x 52.5 cm, framed

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

Meijer dates the work to circa 1660 and compares it to a similar still life which was exhibited in Kasteel Museum Sypesteyn, Loosdrecht. The tiny figure of the huntsman in the far distance of the present painting can also be discerned in a further still life by Hondecoeter from circa 1665 in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam (inv. no. 1328).

The present painting is typical of the artist’s work, displaying the spoils of the hunt with the dead birds and hunting paraphernalia arranged on a stone ledge. Melchoir de Hondecoeter came from a prominent family of painters which included his grandfather Gillis de Hondecoeter, his father Gijsbert de Hondecoeter and his uncle Jan Baptist Weenix (1621–1659). He began his training with his father, before working as an apprentice with his uncle from whom he learned his technique, his palette and his Italianate decorative style. Very early on in his career, the depiction of fowl and birds became his preferred subject matter.

From the middle of the seventeenth century, there was a considerable increase in the Northern Netherlands of still lifes depicting the spoils of the hunt. The challenge to accurately capture the feathers and fur of the animals and the variety of other associated materials such as the leather and metals and rich fabrics provided seventeenth century painters an opportunity to showcase their skills. Since birds were the most prominent game to be hunted in the west of the country, they are most frequently featured in these still lifes. Nicknamed ‘Raphael of Birds’ Melchior de Hondecoeter was the only painter of the seventeenth century who succeeded in rendering the plumage of his models with such realism and accuracy and with such a blaze of colour.