Melchior d'Hondecoeter

Österby Collection, Uppland;

Hendrik Tamm, Stockholm, by 1913;

Anonymous sale, Stockholm, Bukowski, 6 November 1963, lot 141 (as Willem van Aelst);¹

With Galerias "La Granja," Mexico City (as van Aelst);

From whom acquired by a private collector, 1967;

Thence by descent to the present collector.

O. Granberg, Inventaire Général des Trésors d'Art en Suède, Stockholm 1913, vol. III, p. 60, cat. no. 201 (as signed M.D. Hondecoeter).

Painted circa 1660, this moody forest still life is one of Melchior d’Hondecoeter’s earliest works. The composition embodies the artist’s refined approach to hunting still lifes, which earned him the distinction of being called the “Raphael of birds.” Set within a forest grotto, the work evokes compositions by the celebrated still-life artist Otto Marseus van Schrieck, whose fantastical forest scenes—often filled with reptiles, mushrooms, butterflies, and delicate flowers—pushed the genre’s boundaries. The foreground features a rifle and horn beside a wood pigeon, partridge, and thrush, which, in combination with the hunters just visible in the distance, subtly links the tableau to a broader narrative of the hunt.

We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for identifying the present painting as an early work by Melchior d'Hondecoeter.

¹ According to an annotated photocard at the RKD: https://rkd.nl/imageslite/261630.