(Antwerp 1611–1661) Hunting Still Life with a Rabbit and Poultry, oil on canvas 113 x 146 cm, framed

Provenance: European private collection;

Literature: L. Salerno, Nuovi studi su la natura morta italiana, Rome 1989, p. 17;

The present work is a beautiful early composition dating from circa 1635, and painted during Fyt´s soujourn in Italy. Jan Fyt was the son of a wealthy merchant form Antwerp who began his artistic career in workshop of Hans Van Der Berch, at the age of ten he entered in the important workshop of Frans Snyders, where he specialized in still lifes for which he soon became one of the most respected artists of his time specialising in the genre. In 1633 he travelled to France, Naples, Florence, Venice and Rome. In Rome he joined the guild of painters form the Netherlands, the Schildersbent. Fyt returned to Antwerp in 1641 and joined the guild of the Romans, whose members were only those who had actually worked in Rome. Among his students were Pieter Boel and Jacob van de Kerckhoven, who were strongly influenced by his palette and his brushwork. The works of Jan Fyt are more Italianate, specifically in the use of colour when compared with Snyders. Fyt enjoyed great popularity amongst his contemporaries and his works were present in the collections of the European dynasties of Spain, Holland, as well as the Marchese del Carpio and Elector Clemens August in Cologne. Artists of the time, such as Erasmus Quellinus, also collected his paintings, We are grateful to Fred Meijer Rijksbureau Kunsthistorische voor Documentatie (RKD) for confirming the attribution to Jan Fyt on the basis of a photograph.

Provenance: European private collection; Literature: L. Salerno, Nuovi studi su la natura morta italiana, Rome 1989, p. 17; The present work is a beautiful early composition dating from circa 1635, and painted during Fyt´s soujourn in Italy. Jan Fyt was