FOLLOWER OF JEAN-BAPTISTE OUDRY | Still life of game on a window ledge

bears signature and date lower right: 'JB. oudry' / '1751'oil on canvas, unframed This still-life is painted in the spirit of the principal animal painter and one of the foremost decorative painters during the first half of Louis XV’s reign: Jean-Baptiste Oudry. After initial training as a portrait painter, Oudry concentrated on still-lifes; by the 1720s he had also begun to establish himself as a specialist in hunting scenes, game-pieces and portraits of animals. 

All paintings available to view at the Sotheby’s Greenford Park warehouse, 5 - 7 and 10 – 13 September (10 - 4pm), by appointment. The canvas is lined, the paint surface is relatively clean, and the varnish slightly discoloured. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals little intervention, save for some strengthening to two mullions of the window along the left-hand side, to the dark pigments of the bird, lower left, in the hare's forehead, and in its right leg. There are also some retouchings in the dark pigments in the bird on the right and in the shadow beneath it, as well as in the window frame in the foreground.
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