Jan Weenix

Prince Sapieha;
His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 15 June 1904, lot 111 for 6,000 francs to Mr. David Leroux;
With Opdebeek, Brussels, 1959;
Acquired by the late father of the present owner.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has an old lining and stretcher. There is also an old fairly brownish varnish and together with the fine unworn underlying condition of the paint the picture appears to have benefitted from just such a peaceful background as this landscape might suggest. The lining is growing slightly weak however in a few places, with a little area of slightly raised paint at lower right and also perhaps near the mid left as well. The paint itself has been magnificently preserved, with just a single petal of the red poppy on the right having been slightly overcleaned in the past, but elsewhere the rich brushwork is juicy and intact almost throughout. The only sign of past restoration is along the bordering stretcher bar lines at the sides and along the top. Whether at some point the painting was folded back along these stretcher bar lines or for some reason covered by another frame, there is consistent old retouching along the stretcher bar lines and also in the blue of the sky in the upper left corner between the bar line and the edge. There may also be one or two old surface touches in the lower sky. The old varnish makes the surface opaque to ultra violet light. Essentially this painting is in remarkably pure intact condition beneath the darkened layers of old varnish. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The magnificent White Cockatoo (Cacatua Alba) with its raised crest caught by the breeze, is a native of Indonesia, and specimens were no doubt brought to Europe by ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on their returning voyages.  Live specimens almost certainly reached Europe several centuries earlier however, since they were much prized in China during the Tang dynasty, and the Sultan of Babylon presented a Cockatoo to the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1229. The White Cockatoo was not taxonomically described until 1776, but it occurs occasionally in European art in the 17th Century.

Jan Weenix generally restricts wildlife and domestic animals in his game-pieces to the extensive repertoire of those hunted or engaged in hunting in The Netherlands and adjacent Germany, plus the occasionally onlooking magpie, but he sometimes includes among the living songbirds ornamental fowl such as peacocks (although these are sometimes to be counted among the booty), and exotic imported species such as monkeys. The imperious Cockatoo in this picture appears to play the role of guarding the spoils of the chase, as for example hounds do in other game-pieces by Weenix and his contemporaries. The bird also plays a role in anchoring the lower right corner of the composition and drawing the eye in to the picture. Weenix liked to include a strong element of white in his pictures, in other works often a swan, a goose, the white fur of the belly of a hare, or in one case a dead snowy owl.

The gold-fringed blue game-bag occurs in several game-pieces by Jan Weenix, including a work dated 1691 in The Wallace Collection, London.