Still Life with Birds
Artist: Melchior d'Hondecoeter (Dutch, 1636-1695)
Date: mid 17th-late 17th Century
Dimensions:
H: 21 7/8 in. (55.5 cm); W: 18 7/8 in. (47.8 cm)
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1962.69
Label Text:Melchior d’Hondecoeter’s name became synonymous with his specialty of birds. He was the master in the 17th century at painting the soft, glossy, delicately colored plumage of all kinds of domestic poultry, game birds, and exotic fowl—depicted as both living and dead.
Here he portrays freshly killed game birds hung before or set on the ledge of a wall niche. The hanging partridge still has the net and stakes used to capture it tangled around its legs. The brightly plumed kingfisher and the plump finch on the ledge are balanced by a single feather fallen from the partridge. Hondecoeter designed the composition as trompe-l’oeil (“fool the eye”)—the hook, hanging partridge, and bottom part of the kingfisher seem to realistically project into our space.
Here he portrays freshly killed game birds hung before or set on the ledge of a wall niche. The hanging partridge still has the net and stakes used to capture it tangled around its legs. The brightly plumed kingfisher and the plump finch on the ledge are balanced by a single feather fallen from the partridge. Hondecoeter designed the composition as trompe-l’oeil (“fool the eye”)—the hook, hanging partridge, and bottom part of the kingfisher seem to realistically project into our space.
Not on view
In Collection(s)