A hunting still life with a partridge, a pheasant and finches, together with a hunting sack and a powderflask on a stone ledge
Important information about this lot
Price Realised EUR 43,750
Estimate
EUR 20,000 - EUR 30,000
Estimates do not reflect the final hammer price and do not include buyer's premium, any applicable taxes or artist's resale right. Please see the Conditions of Sale for full details.
Melchior d’Hondecoeter is celebrated as the leading bird painter in the Dutch 17th century. He worked by making ad vivum oil sketches of birds captured in various poses, from which he would later populate his paintings, painted with high accuracy of observation. The present painting is a rather early example of d’Hondecoeter’s technique and reveals predominantly the influence of his uncle Jan Baptist Weenix, with whom, besides his father Gijsbert Gillisz. de Hondecoeter, Melchior trained. The picture is very likely to be dated to the 1660s and reveals compositional devices favoured by the artist at that time, when he was also influenced by the work of Frans Snyders, whose paintings he collected.
A comparable still life with game, also on canvas and with an almost identical positioning of the partridge, is in the National Museum in Gdańsk and dated to circa 1663.
Professor Dr Albert Blankert is a renowned art historian in the field of the Dutch Golden Age. During his academic tenure in Utrecht, and as professor at Yale, Cambridge and in Leiden, he has contributed profoundly to our knowledge of Dutch Italianized and Caravaggist painters, Rembrandt and Dutch classicism in the 17th century. Foremost, prof dr Blankert is among the most authoritative Johannes Vermeer scholars and has written extensively on Vermeer's art and Dutch painting.
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A hunting still life with a partridge, a pheasant and finches, together with a hunting sack and a powderflask on a stone ledgeMelchior d'Hondecoeter (Utrecht 1636-1695 Amsterdam)Estimate: EUR 20,000 - 30,000
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Condition report
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The condition of lots can vary widely and the nature of the lots sold means that they are unlikely to be in a perfect condition. Lots are sold in the condition they are in at the time of sale.
The canvas is supported with a stiff lining, having caused the painted surface to flatten somewhat. The varnish is yellowed. In natural light no retouchings or damages can be seen. The blues in the pheasant have oxidised with time. The different textures of for instance the birds’ feathers are still nicely visible despite the stiff lining. UV light reveals very few discrete retouchings and strengthening to the top architrave of the architecture, to the light blue cloud upper left, to the small dark feathers of the pheasant, very little to the kingfisher, in addition to some retouching to the outer left, right and lower edge. Otherwise the varnish turns green, making a more detailed reading difficult.
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Lot 2Sale 20127
A hunting still life with a partridge, a pheasant and finches, together with a hunting sack and a powderflask on a stone ledgeMelchior d'Hondecoeter (Utrecht 1636-1695 Amsterdam)Estimate: EUR 20,000 - 30,000
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