Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Quality in Detail. The Juli and Andrew Wieg Collection
Barend van der Meer
Still life of wild strawberries, peaches, figs, and other fruit on a ledge with a grey parrot
Lot Closed
March 24, 03:58 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Barend van der Meer
Haarlem 1659 - before 1703
Still life of wild strawberries, peaches, figs, and other fruit on a ledge with a grey parrot
signed lower centre: B vder: meer.
oil on canvas
unframed: 65.5 x 63 cm.; 25 3/4 x 24 3/4 in.
framed: 86 x 84 cm.; 33 7/8 x 33 1/8 in.
Born in Haarlem, Barend van der Meer came from a family of artists. After studying painting with his father, Jan van der Meer (1628-91), he became a pupil of Juriaan van Streek (1632-87). In 1683, Barend moved to Amsterdam following his marriage and established a reputation in the competitive art scene of that city. His still-life paintings often consist of an ordered and well-studied display of wealthy objects, enlivened in the present work by a flying grey parrot.
The grey parrot, also known as the Congo grey parrot, Congo African grey parrot or African grey parrot, is an Old World parrot in the family of Psittacidae, and must have been a truly exotic attribute at the time this painting was produced, in the second half of the 17th century. Beautiful, exotic, and rare, parrots are a mainstay of 17th-century Dutch genre paintings, and were highly coveted by the wealthy elite. The African grey (Psittacus erithacus) depicted here, is considered the most intelligent of parrots.1