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Lot Essay
Melchior d’Hondecoeter’s combination of technical brilliance, alert observation of nature and a playful imagination made him the greatest game and bird painter of his generation. His large-scale decorative game-pieces were popular amongst wealthy Amsterdam merchants and were commissioned to adorn the walls of their town houses and country mansions.
This picture, which is prominently signed and dated 1668, is an early work by the artist. Hondecoeter established his style at a young age and adhered to it throughout his long career. He took up the genre of gamepieces, which he had learnt from his father, Gijsbert and uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix, absorbing also the influence of Frans Snyders, and carried it to a new level of elegance and technical perfection, as exemplified in this painting. Hondecoeter has considered each element carefully. The central focus is the lean body of the hare, where he used quick, feathery brushstrokes to create depth in the luxurious fur. Cast in a secondary role are the boar, in whose head blue highlights are employed to add to the bristling quality of the hide, and the two partridges. These birds lend a delicate note to the whole, with their pale feathers set against the deeper brown of the tree trunk. The texture of the fur and feathers is contrasted with the rich, smooth mahogany of the gun butt, the plush green velvet of the bag and the hard stone of the supporting ledge.
There is a pictorial stagecraft at play which unites the disparate elements. Whilst the composition is built along a horizontal line, beginning proudly with the flourishing signature at lower left and finishing at upper right with the hare’s outthrust hind leg, the light source flows in opposition down from the upper left corner to lower right. The intersection of diagonal lines occurs in the white tuft of fur on the hare’s chest, which can poetically be understood as the heart of the composition. It is clear that even at this early stage in his career, Hondecoeter was acutely aware of the need to manipulate the play of light across different surfaces to bring a sense of immediacy to his still-lives. This innate artistry was coupled with a scientific interest in the world around him. Hondecoeter worked by making ad vivum oil sketches of his favourite birds and animals, captured in various striking or engaging poses, from which studies he would later populate his paintings. It is for this reason that his works were amongst the most desirable decorative paintings in Europe, to be encountered in almost any royal, princely or national collection by the nineteenth century, at which time the artist was famously given the moniker the ‘Raphael of bird painters’.
This picture, which is prominently signed and dated 1668, is an early work by the artist. Hondecoeter established his style at a young age and adhered to it throughout his long career. He took up the genre of gamepieces, which he had learnt from his father, Gijsbert and uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix, absorbing also the influence of Frans Snyders, and carried it to a new level of elegance and technical perfection, as exemplified in this painting. Hondecoeter has considered each element carefully. The central focus is the lean body of the hare, where he used quick, feathery brushstrokes to create depth in the luxurious fur. Cast in a secondary role are the boar, in whose head blue highlights are employed to add to the bristling quality of the hide, and the two partridges. These birds lend a delicate note to the whole, with their pale feathers set against the deeper brown of the tree trunk. The texture of the fur and feathers is contrasted with the rich, smooth mahogany of the gun butt, the plush green velvet of the bag and the hard stone of the supporting ledge.
There is a pictorial stagecraft at play which unites the disparate elements. Whilst the composition is built along a horizontal line, beginning proudly with the flourishing signature at lower left and finishing at upper right with the hare’s outthrust hind leg, the light source flows in opposition down from the upper left corner to lower right. The intersection of diagonal lines occurs in the white tuft of fur on the hare’s chest, which can poetically be understood as the heart of the composition. It is clear that even at this early stage in his career, Hondecoeter was acutely aware of the need to manipulate the play of light across different surfaces to bring a sense of immediacy to his still-lives. This innate artistry was coupled with a scientific interest in the world around him. Hondecoeter worked by making ad vivum oil sketches of his favourite birds and animals, captured in various striking or engaging poses, from which studies he would later populate his paintings. It is for this reason that his works were amongst the most desirable decorative paintings in Europe, to be encountered in almost any royal, princely or national collection by the nineteenth century, at which time the artist was famously given the moniker the ‘Raphael of bird painters’.