Melchior de Hondecoeter, Dutch, 1636-1695
Title: Poultry
Date: 1660s-1690s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
101.5 x 130 cm
Signed: centre left: M.D. Hondecoeter
Credit Line: Bequeathed, Sir Henry Page Turner Barron, 1901
Object Number: NGI.509
DescriptionA domestic drake, drake teal, drake wigeon and ducklings disport themselves in and around a pond; above are a domestic cock, hen, chicks and a duckling. The setting enhances the sense of realism, as do the birds’ lively movements. A fragment of stone cornice and a glimpse of landscape add a decorative element, which help to make the painting more than simply a natural history study.
Hondecoeter trained with his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix, a renowned still-life and landscape painter. He worked in the Hague from 1649 to 1662 and then spent the rest of his life in Amsterdam. Hondecoeter’s style varied little over a long career and his mature style is indebted to the Flemish painter Frans Snyders, whose paintings he collected.
Hondecoeter’s high posthumous reputation is demonstrated by the fact that the French eighteenth-century artist François Boucher made drawings of the cock and hen from this work and used them in a number of his own pictures.
March 2016
Hondecoeter trained with his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix, a renowned still-life and landscape painter. He worked in the Hague from 1649 to 1662 and then spent the rest of his life in Amsterdam. Hondecoeter’s style varied little over a long career and his mature style is indebted to the Flemish painter Frans Snyders, whose paintings he collected.
Hondecoeter’s high posthumous reputation is demonstrated by the fact that the French eighteenth-century artist François Boucher made drawings of the cock and hen from this work and used them in a number of his own pictures.
March 2016
ProvenanceHotel des Ventes, Paris, 18-19 April 1842, Comte de C...(Cahen or Cornelissen) sale, lot 23; Vicomte Bernard du Bus de Gisigneis; Brussels, 9-10 May 1882, Vicomte Bernard du Bus de Gisigneis sale, lot 36; Sir Henry Page Turner Barron; bequeathed, Sir Henry Page Turner Barron, 1901.
Exhibition HistoryDutch Paintings of the Golden Age from the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum, Santa Ana, California; Midland Arts Council, Midland, Michigan; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; Centre for the Fine Arts, Miami, Florida; IBM Gallery, New York, 1987
Mechior d'Hondecoeter 1636-1695, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 18 September 2010 - 2 January 2011
Mechior d'Hondecoeter 1636-1695, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 18 September 2010 - 2 January 2011
Label TextA domestic drake, drake teal, drake wigeon and ducklings are gathered in and around a pond, alongside a domestic cock, hen, chicks and a duckling. The setting enhances the sense of realism, as do the birds’ lively poses. A fragment of stone cornice and a glimpse of landscape add a decorative element, and help to make the painting more than a natural history study. Hondecoeter trained with his uncle Jan Baptist Weenix, a renowned still-life and landscape painter. He worked in The Hague from 1649 to 1662 and then spent the rest of his career in Amsterdam.