Peeter Boel Antwerp 1622 - 1674 Paris

This small painting is unusual in the oeuvre of the painter and draughtsman Peeter Boel.  It is far more in keeping with his drawings and engravings of animal studies, and with his numerous oil sketches kept in the Louvre, than with his large-scale paintings. Three sheets of drawings in particular are showing similar animals in like positions, one of A head of an ostrich in various positions, one of Ostrich's legs and feet and one of a Red parrot with several studies of its head, all in the Louvre, Paris (inv. nos. 19414, 19417, RF 10728, see M. Pinault Sorensen, Sur le vif: Dessins d'animaux de Pieter Boel, exhibition catalogue, Paris, Louvre 14 September - 17 December 2001, reproduced pp. 78, 81, 85).   Boel was also an engraver. For comparison with his engravings see: Hollstein, vol. III, pp. 56-60, reproduced plate s1-6, 9-14.