(Utrecht 1636–1695 Amsterdam)
A hare, a pheasant, a hunting horn and a musket near a classical column,
signed above the rifle: M D. HONDECOETER,
oil on canvas, 88 x 71 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 26 May 2005, lot 39;
Private collection, Belgium

The present work is an important early game piece from the hand of one of the great animaliers of the Dutch Golden Age, Melchior d’Hondecoeter. The composition is likely from the artist’s Amsterdam period, and exudes the influence of his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix, whose workshop Melchior entered following the death of his father, Gysbert in 1653. Weenix’s Hunting Booty with a Swan, in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, typifies the sorts of paintings with which Melchior may have assisted in the 1650s.

In the current canvas, Melchior shows his virtuoso still-life technique vis-à-vis that of his master, with the careful detailing of the musket barrel, the skillful rendering of the hunting horn, and the tasseled and feathered pouches along with the lustrous texture of the green velvet cushion. The setting and palette of the present picture may be compared with another early game piece by Melchior which uses a similar classical background, Dead Birds, conserved in the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the arrangement of the hanging hare and pheasant lying on the ledge pre-figure a later composition by the master, signed and dated 1668, formerly in the S. Nystad Collection, The Hague.