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Waterfowl Melchior de Hondecoeter

Artist

Melchior de Hondecoeter Utrecht, 1635/1636 – Amsterdam, 1695

Culture Netherlandish
Date ca. 1668
Object type painting
Medium, technique oil on canvas
Dimensions

188 × 133 cm

Inventory number 215
Collection Old Master Paintings
On view Museum of Fine Arts, First Floor, European Art 1600–1700 and British Painting 1600–1800, Cabinet 8

Melchior d’Hondecoeter was more of a specialist even among animal painters, achieving fame and prestigious commissions in his homeland for his majestically colourful depictions of birds, both native species and exotic ones. Similarly to the many Netherlandish still lifes showing flowers from different seasons all in bloom at the same time, in this picture, waterfowl from different regions are presented together in a single composition. In a landscape featuring hills, woodlands and a river, a stocky pelican is accompanied by an Egyptian goose, a magpie and a variety of ducks and geese. A more elaborate variation of the painting, supplemented with a flamingo, a crowned crane and a cassowary, was commissioned by William III of Orange and his wife, the Stadtholders of the Dutch Republic, to decorate their Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn.

References

Pigler, Andor, Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, 1-2. Museum der Bildenden Künste, Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. 2, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1967, p. 322-323.

This record is subject to revision due to ongoing research.

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