After Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-1695) Dutch, Oil on Canvas of Birds. Close reproduction based on d'Honecoeter's "Parrots and ducks in a landscape," leaving out a couple of his creatures and altering the look of the land somewhat. "Made in the U.S.A." stamped on back of frame.
Condition: Commensurate with age.
Overall Size: 44 5/8 x 32 3/4 in.
Sight Size: 35 3/8 x 23 3/8 in.
#32 #4044 .
Melchior d’Hondecoeter was born in 1636 in Utrecht in The Netherlands. He was the grandson of the painter Gillis d’Hondecoeter and the son of the landscape and animalier artist Gijsbert d’Hondecoeter. After his father’s death in 1653 his uncle by marriage Jan Baptist Weenix continued his artistic training, making him immersed in artistic communities his entire life. For a period of time Melchior was torn between becoming a painter or a minister, but found art more suitable for him to express his “passions” than the clergy. In 1659 he was working in The Hague and became a member of Confrerie Pictura, the painters’ academy of that town. In 1663 Hondecoeter married Susanne Tradel in Amsterdam, with whom he had two children. He spent much of his time in his garden or drinking in a tavern in Jordaan, where he was surrounded by art dealers and various painters. Hondecoeter began his career focused on sea-pieces, still lifes involving aquatic life. One of his earliest works is Tub with Fish, dated 1655, in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum. However, Hondecoeter soon abandoned fish for fowl, and achieved immense local celebrity as a painter of an enormous variety of birds, particularly for depicting them alive and active rather than dead after a day’s shooting. Very few of his pictures are dated, though most are signed. Hondecoeter also painted wall hangings and landscapes with views of buildings and parks, and his works are seen throughout The Netherlands as well as at the Hermitage in Russia, the Royal Museum of Belgium, and many other museums around the world. His pupils included Willem Hendrik Wilhelmus van Royen and Jan Weenix, the son of his second mentor. He was followed by or influenced countless artists, including Peter Casteels III, Adriaen van Oolen, Felice Boselli, Angelo Maria Crivelli, Tobias Stranover, Marmaduke Cradock, Adriaen Coorte, Jan van Huysum, and Elias Vonck. Due to rapidly declining health he moved to a house on the Leliegracht in 1692 after his wife died. He lived there with his daughter Isabel, who he left with substantial debts when he died on April 3rd, 1695. His executor created a short inventory which listed a small gallows built for him to keep birds in the right position, as well as seven paintings by Frans Snyders, one of the earliest and finest Flemish animaliers. Hondecoeter’s paintings of game animals are considered some of the greatest portrayals of rare species, and feature common geese, fieldfares, partridges, pigeons, ducks, cardinals, magpies, and peacocks alongside exotic African grey crowned cranes, Asian sarus cranes, Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoos, Indonesian purple-naped lories, and grey-headed lovebirds from Madagascar.
Condition
Commensurate with age.
