Still-life of wading birds and fish by the seashore

According to Hal Opperman (1992), the Alsdorf sheet probably records one of Oudry's earliest highly finished compositional studies in chalk; previously the artist preferred using pen and ink for such works. Opperman also suggested that this is a study for one of a pair of paintings executed in 1722 and exhibited in Paris in 1724 at the so-called 'Exposition de la Jeunesse', and formerly in the collection of Prince de Conti (see H. Opperman, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, New York, 1977, II, nos. P 445, P464).