Peacocks and Ducks

genre

A group of Dutch artists in the seventeenth century represented live domesticated and wild birds. Their pictures do not belong to the category of still-life, but their emphasis on the textural and colouristic beauty of their subjects gives a still-life character to their works. Their patrons probably included the rich burghers who lived as landed aristocrats on estates in the country where they kept exotic as well as native fowl.

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About the Artist

Melchior d' Hondecoeter

1636 – 1695

Dutch painter, the best-known member of a family of artists. He was the Netherlands most renowned painter of birds, winning an international reputation with his vigorous and brightly coloured canvases. They show both domestic and exotic birds, often in action and sometimes pointing a moral. Hondecoeter also painted still-lifes. He was a prolific artist and is represented in many museums. His father, Gijsbert was also a bird painter and his grandfather, Gillis was a landscapist. Melchior trained with his father and with his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix; he worked in Utrecht, The Hague, and Amsterdam.

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