Jan Weenix, Dutch, 1642-1719
Title: Game-piece: the Garden of a Château
Date: 1690s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
122 x 106 cm
Signed: J. Weenix, 1717
Credit Line: Presented, Sir William Hutcheson Poë, 1931
Object Number: NGI.947
DescriptionA domestic cock and a brace of pigeons flank a brown hare with its leg pinioned on a branch above tulips and daisies. Before them lie various fruits: a shrivelled marrow, a part-eaten pomegranate and plum, a peach with a fly crawling over it and deteriorating grapes, all allusions to nature’s transience.
Jan Weenix probably received his artistic training from his father, Jan Baptist Weenix. His first works were either scenes of everyday life set in Italianate landscapes or exotic harbours modelled on his father’s successful compositions. After 1680, Weenix abandoned his father’s style and started painting still lifes of dead animals, flower pieces and statuary, for which he is best known. Like Game-piece, these works often represented a meticulously rendered hare with small birds and hunting gear, set against the imaginary parkland of a wealthy estate. As such, they offered an idealised version of a lifestyle Weenix’s middle-class patrons aspired to, as hunting was restricted to the nobility and certain officers of state in the Dutch Republic at the time.
March 2016
Jan Weenix probably received his artistic training from his father, Jan Baptist Weenix. His first works were either scenes of everyday life set in Italianate landscapes or exotic harbours modelled on his father’s successful compositions. After 1680, Weenix abandoned his father’s style and started painting still lifes of dead animals, flower pieces and statuary, for which he is best known. Like Game-piece, these works often represented a meticulously rendered hare with small birds and hunting gear, set against the imaginary parkland of a wealthy estate. As such, they offered an idealised version of a lifestyle Weenix’s middle-class patrons aspired to, as hunting was restricted to the nobility and certain officers of state in the Dutch Republic at the time.
March 2016
ProvenanceGerrit Braamkamp, Amsterdam, 1752; Amsterdam, 31 July 1771, Gerrit Braamkamp sale, lot 259; J. de Bosch Jeronz.; Christie's, 30 June 1894, Adrian Hope sale, lot 69; R. C. Isaacs; Sir W. Hutcheson Poë; presented, Sir William Hutcheson Poë, 1931
Exhibition HistoryFrom Titian to Delacroix: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, Yokohama Sogo Museum of Art, Yokohama, 25 August - 17 October 1993; Chiba Sogo Museum of Art, Chiba, 10 November - 20 December 1993; Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, 5 January - 20 February 1994; Kobe City Museum, Kobe, 25 February - 10 April 1994; Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 14 April - 24 May 1994
European Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery, Canberra, 25 June - 3 October 1994; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Adelaide, 21 October 1994 - 15 January 1995
European Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery, Canberra, 25 June - 3 October 1994; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Adelaide, 21 October 1994 - 15 January 1995
Label TextA domestic cock and a brace of pigeons ?ank a brown hare with its leg pinioned on a branch above tulips and daisies. Lying in the foreground, a shrivelled marrow, a part-eaten pomegranate and plum, a peach with a ?y crawling over it and deteriorating grapes are all allusions to nature’s transience. Several of Weenix’s works feature meticulously painted hares with hunting gear, set against an imaginary estate. These paintings offer an idealised version of a lifestyle to which Weenix’s middle-class patrons aspired, as hunting was restricted to the nobility and certain of?cers of the state at the time.