Studio of Frans Snyders Antwerp 1579 - 1657

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 December 2002, lot 19 (as Studio of Snyders).

The prime version of this composition, itself painted with studio assistance, is now in the Palacio de Riofrio, Segovia. The stag recurs in two autograph works by Snyders from the 1620s; the first in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg (inv. 1331, reproduced in H. Robels, Frans Snyders, Munich 1989, p. 337, no. 238) and the second in the Brera, Milan (inv. no. 682). The poses of the hounds seem to have their origin in Snijders' own preliminary drawings. That on the far left, for example, derives from a drawing in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 00.9.38), and that of the head of the central fallen hound from a drawing in the Courtauld Institute, London (inv. no. 53). The head of the black and white hound beside this is similarly taken from a sheet of animal studies, also in the British Museum; these are generally dated to the 1630s and a similar date of execution for the present work seems possible.