Master Paintings
Master Paintings
American Visionary: The Collection of Mrs. John L. Marion
Workshop of Melchior de Hondecoeter
Aesop's fable of the raven
Lot Closed
October 21, 04:58 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
American Visionary: The Collection of Mrs. John L. Marion
Workshop of Melchior de Hondecoeter
Utrecht 1636 - 1695 Amsterdam
Aesop's fable of the raven
signed center left on the ledge: M d Hondekoeter
oil on canvas
canvas: 59⅜ by 77½ in.; 150.9 by 196.9 cm.
framed: 64¾ by 82⅞ in.; 164.5 by 210.5 cm.
Lord Hatherton, Hatherton Hall, Yorkshire;
By whom sold ("The Property of the Rt. Hon. Lord Hatherton of Hatherton Hall"), London, Sotheby's, 6 December 1967, lot 128 (as Melchior de Hondecoeter);
There acquired by Leger Galleries, London;
Martin Puigdomenech, London;
With Hall & Knight, New York;
From whom acquired by the present collector, February 1999.
The story depicted in this large canvas comes from Aesop's Fable. At the lower center of the crowded and energetic scene is a raven, who has adorned himself with the colorful feathers of other birds. In the moment captured here, the other birds have recognized their own feathers on the raven and begin to rob him of them. Some reach for their feathers and others hold their reclaimed feathers in their beaks. The remaining feathers have fallen to the ground around the raven, except one peacock feather remains on the crown of his head.
This painting is a workshop variant of a painting of the same subject by Melchior d'Hondecoeter in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, inv. no. BF.1978.18).1 Hondecoeter explored this subject also in another example today in the Mauritshuis in the Hague (inv. no. 59).2
1. https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/19488/the-crow-exposed