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Melchior d'Hondecoeter

December 18, 2023

Not to be confused with Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter or Gillis d'Hondecoeter.

Melchior d'Hondecoeter (Dutch pronunciation: [də ˈɦɔndəˌkutər]; c. 1636 – 3 April 1695), Dutch animalier painter, was born in Utrecht and died in Amsterdam. After the start of his career, he painted virtually exclusively bird subjects, usually exotic or game, in park-like landscapes. Hondecoeter's paintings featured geese (brent goose, Egyptian goose and red-breasted goose), fieldfares, partridges, pigeons, ducks, northern cardinal, magpies and peacocks, but also African grey crowned cranes, Asian sarus cranes, Indonesian yellow-crested cockatoos, an Indonesian purple-naped lory and grey-headed lovebirds from Madagascar.

Portrait of Melchior d'Hondecoeter for Arnold Houbraken's Schouwburg, by Houbraken's son Jacob.

Biography edit

 
Hunting trophies beside a magpie on a tree stump, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Being the grandson of the painter Gillis d'Hondecoeter and the son of Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter, whose sister Josina married Jan Baptist Weenix, he was brought up in an artistic milieu.[1] Melchior's cousin Jan Weenix told Arnold Houbraken that in his youth Melchior was extremely religious, praying very loud, so that his mother and uncle doubted whether they would have him trained as a painter or a minister.

In 1659, he was working in The Hague and became a member of Confrerie Pictura, the painters' academy of that town. In 1663, Hondecoeter married Susanne Tradel from Amsterdam. She lived on the Lauriergracht, and was thirty when they married. The couple had two children, baptized in 1666 and 1668. She is said to have been captious, and had her sisters living in the house. According to Houbraken, Hondecoeter spent much time in his garden or drinking in the tavern in the Jordaan. On the Lauriergracht he was surrounded by art dealers and various painters. Later he moved to a house on the Leliegracht (near the present Anne Frank House). In 1692, his wife died. Hondecoeter lived in the house of his daughter Isabel in the Warmoesstraat, but was buried in the Westerkerk. He left his daughter with substantial debts.[2] His inventory lists a small gallows, to keep birds in the right position, and seven paintings of Frans Snyders.

Hondecoeter began his career with a different speciality from that by which he is usually known. Mr de Stuers affirms that he produced sea-pieces. One of his earliest works is Tub with Fish, dated 1655, in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum. Hondecoeter soon abandoned fish for fowl. He acquired celebrity as a painter of birds only, which he represented not exclusively, like Johannes Fyt, as the gamekeeper's perquisite after a day's shooting, or stock of a poulterer's shop, but as living beings with passions, joys, fears and quarrels, to which naturalists will tell us that birds are subject. Without the brilliant tone and high finish of Fyt, the latter's Dutch rival's birds are full of action; and, as Burger says, "Hondecoeter displays the maternity of the hen with as much tenderness and feeling as Raphael the maternity of Madonnas." But Fyt, a pupil of Snyder, was at home in depicting the coat of deer and dons as well as plumage. Hondecoeter cultivated a narrower field, and seldom went beyond a cock-fight or a display of mere bird life.[3]

 
Still Life with Cock, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

Very few of his pictures are dated, around twenty of them, though more are signed. Notable are Jackdaw deprived of his Borrowed Plumes (1671), at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, of which Earl Cadogan has an authentic copy; Game and Poultry and A Spaniel hunting a Partridge (1672), in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium; A Park with Poultry (1686) at the Hermitage of St Petersburg.[3]

Hondecoeter also painted wall hangings with views of buildings and parks. Stadtholder William III employed Hondecoeter, in great favour with the magnates of the Dutch Republic, to paint his menagerie at Het Loo, and the picture, now at The Hague museum, shows that he could at a pinch overcome the difficulty of representing India's cattle, elephants and gazelles. But he is better in homelier works, with which he adorned the royal castles of Bensberg and Oranienstein at different periods of his life. His earliest works are more conscientious, lighter and more transparent than his later ones. At all times he is bold of touch and sure of eye, giving the motion of birds with great spirit and accuracy.[3]

According to the RKD his registered pupils were Willem Hendrik Wilhelmus van Royen and Jan Weenix. He was followed by or influenced D. Birrius, Peter Casteels (III), Adriaen van Oolen, Felice Boselli, Angelo Maria Crivelli, Tobias Stranover, Charles Collins (c. 1680-1744), Marmaduke Cradock, Adriaen Coorte, Jan van Huysum, and Elias Vonck.[4]

Collections edit

His masterpieces are at The Hague, Soestdijk and at Amsterdam (The Floating Feather), but there are fine examples in the Wallace Collection and Belton House in England, and in the public galleries of Berlin, Budapest, Caen, Cologne, Copenhagen, Detroit, Dresden, Dublin, Florence, Glasgow, Hanover, Karlsruhe, Kassel, London, Lyon, Lille, Melbourne, Montpellier, Munich, Paris, Poltava, Riga, Rotterdam, Rouen, Stuttgart, Schwerin, Vaduz, Warsaw and Vienna. The largest Hondecoeter exhibition to date was held in Berlin in 2010, where 18 of his works were shown at the Neue Nationalgalerie as part of Willem de Rooij's installation 'Intolerance'.[5]

In popular culture edit

His painting 'A Pelican and other Birds near a Pool’, otherwise known as ‘The Floating Feather’ (c. 1680), was used by William Doyle (musician) for the cover of his album Great Spans of Muddy Time.[6]

Gallery edit

  •  
    A Cock and Two Hens, with Chicks, in a Landscape Setting (1656–95), oil on canvas, 76.8 x cm., National Trust
  •  
    Birds, Butterflies and Frog with Plants and Fungi (1668), oil on canvas, 68.3 x 56.8 cm., National Gallery
  •  
    Backyard Birds (1660s), oil on canvas, 105 x 182 cm., Musée Condé
  •  
    Animals and Plants of the Forest (ca. 1670-80), oil on canvas, 81.2 x 64.7 cm., Yale University Art Gallery
  •  
    Chickens and Ducks (ca. 1660-90), oil on canvas, 115 x 136 cm., Mauritshuis
  •  
    Concert of Birds (1670), oil on canvas, 84 x 99 cm., private collection
  •  
    Beast in Front of Noah's Ark (ca. 1680), oil on canvas, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
  •  
    Fox with Dead Rooster and Poultry (1678), oil on canvas, 148 x 170 cm., Netherlands Art Collection
  •  
    Geflügelhof [Poultry Farm] (ca. 1675-99), oil on canvas, 162 × 220,5 cm., Kunsthistorisches Museum
  •  
    The Crow Exposed (ca. 1680), oil on canvas, 170.2 × 211.5 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
  •  
    Pelican and Birds Near a Pool, "The Floating Feather" (ca. 1680), oil on canvas, 159 x144 cm., Rijksmuseum
  •  
    The Poultry Yard (1690s), oil on canvas, 148.2 x 170.3 cm., National Gallery of Victoria
  •  
    Roosters Fighting (1686), oil on canvas, 104 x 136.5 cm., Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
  •  
    Ducks (ca. 1675-80), oil on canvas, 93 x 116 cm., Rijksmuseum
  •  
    Still Life with Animals (ca. 1680-90), oil on canvas, 141 x 172 cm., Museo del Prado
  •  
    A Diana Monkey with Four Colorful Birds (ca. 1690), oil on canvas, 61.7 x 48.8 cm., Toledo Museum of Art
  •  
    Girl with Peacocks (ca. 1680), oil on canvas, 128 x 181.7 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Reims [girl likely painted by Jan de Baen]
  •  
    Peacocks, Male and Female (1681), oil on canvas, 1,30 x 1,30 cm., Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris
  •  
    Cockatoo and Monkey by a Wicker Basket of Fruit (no date), oil on canvas. 76.5 x 127.6 cm., private collection
  •  
    Peacocks (1683), oil on canvas, 190.2 x 134.6 cm., Metropolitan Museum of Art

References edit

  1. ^ Melchior Hondecoeter in Houbraken's Schouwburg
  2. ^ Walter A. Liedtke (2007) Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Volume 1. New York, p. 347, 348
  3. ^ a b c   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hondecoeter, Melchior d'". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 649.
  4. ^ Hondecoeter in the RKD
  5. ^ M. Rikken, 'Melchior d'Hondecoeter - Bird Painter', in: W. de Rooij, B. Meyer-Krahmer, Intolerance, Düsseldorf: Feymedia, 2010: p. 9-32.
  6. ^ Doyle, William. "Great Spans of Muddy Time, by William Doyle". Bandcamp. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melchior d'Hondecoeter.

External links edit

  • 50 artworks by or after Melchior d'Hondecoeter at the Art UK site
  • Intolerance installation
  • Works and literature on Melchior d'Hondecoeter

December 18, 2023
melchior, hondecoeter, confused, with, gijsbert, hondecoeter, gillis, hondecoeter, dutch, pronunciation, ˈɦɔndəˌkutər, 1636, april, 1695, dutch, animalier, painter, born, utrecht, died, amsterdam, after, start, career, painted, virtually, exclusively, bird, su. Not to be confused with Gijsbert d Hondecoeter or Gillis d Hondecoeter Melchior d Hondecoeter Dutch pronunciation de ˈɦɔndeˌkuter c 1636 3 April 1695 Dutch animalier painter was born in Utrecht and died in Amsterdam After the start of his career he painted virtually exclusively bird subjects usually exotic or game in park like landscapes Hondecoeter s paintings featured geese brent goose Egyptian goose and red breasted goose fieldfares partridges pigeons ducks northern cardinal magpies and peacocks but also African grey crowned cranes Asian sarus cranes Indonesian yellow crested cockatoos an Indonesian purple naped lory and grey headed lovebirds from Madagascar Portrait of Melchior d Hondecoeter for Arnold Houbraken s Schouwburg by Houbraken s son Jacob Contents 1 Biography 2 Collections 3 In popular culture 4 Gallery 5 References 6 External linksBiography edit nbsp Hunting trophies beside a magpie on a tree stump Rijksmuseum AmsterdamBeing the grandson of the painter Gillis d Hondecoeter and the son of Gijsbert d Hondecoeter whose sister Josina married Jan Baptist Weenix he was brought up in an artistic milieu 1 Melchior s cousin Jan Weenix told Arnold Houbraken that in his youth Melchior was extremely religious praying very loud so that his mother and uncle doubted whether they would have him trained as a painter or a minister In 1659 he was working in The Hague and became a member of Confrerie Pictura the painters academy of that town In 1663 Hondecoeter married Susanne Tradel from Amsterdam She lived on the Lauriergracht and was thirty when they married The couple had two children baptized in 1666 and 1668 She is said to have been captious and had her sisters living in the house According to Houbraken Hondecoeter spent much time in his garden or drinking in the tavern in the Jordaan On the Lauriergracht he was surrounded by art dealers and various painters Later he moved to a house on the Leliegracht near the present Anne Frank House In 1692 his wife died Hondecoeter lived in the house of his daughter Isabel in the Warmoesstraat but was buried in the Westerkerk He left his daughter with substantial debts 2 His inventory lists a small gallows to keep birds in the right position and seven paintings of Frans Snyders Hondecoeter began his career with a different speciality from that by which he is usually known Mr de Stuers affirms that he produced sea pieces One of his earliest works is Tub with Fish dated 1655 in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum Hondecoeter soon abandoned fish for fowl He acquired celebrity as a painter of birds only which he represented not exclusively like Johannes Fyt as the gamekeeper s perquisite after a day s shooting or stock of a poulterer s shop but as living beings with passions joys fears and quarrels to which naturalists will tell us that birds are subject Without the brilliant tone and high finish of Fyt the latter s Dutch rival s birds are full of action and as Burger says Hondecoeter displays the maternity of the hen with as much tenderness and feeling as Raphael the maternity of Madonnas But Fyt a pupil of Snyder was at home in depicting the coat of deer and dons as well as plumage Hondecoeter cultivated a narrower field and seldom went beyond a cock fight or a display of mere bird life 3 nbsp Still Life with Cock Royal Museum of Fine Arts AntwerpVery few of his pictures are dated around twenty of them though more are signed Notable are Jackdaw deprived of his Borrowed Plumes 1671 at the Mauritshuis in The Hague of which Earl Cadogan has an authentic copy Game and Poultry and A Spaniel hunting a Partridge 1672 in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium A Park with Poultry 1686 at the Hermitage of St Petersburg 3 Hondecoeter also painted wall hangings with views of buildings and parks Stadtholder William III employed Hondecoeter in great favour with the magnates of the Dutch Republic to paint his menagerie at Het Loo and the picture now at The Hague museum shows that he could at a pinch overcome the difficulty of representing India s cattle elephants and gazelles But he is better in homelier works with which he adorned the royal castles of Bensberg and Oranienstein at different periods of his life His earliest works are more conscientious lighter and more transparent than his later ones At all times he is bold of touch and sure of eye giving the motion of birds with great spirit and accuracy 3 According to the RKD his registered pupils were Willem Hendrik Wilhelmus van Royen and Jan Weenix He was followed by or influenced D Birrius Peter Casteels III Adriaen van Oolen Felice Boselli Angelo Maria Crivelli Tobias Stranover Charles Collins c 1680 1744 Marmaduke Cradock Adriaen Coorte Jan van Huysum and Elias Vonck 4 Collections editHis masterpieces are at The Hague Soestdijk and at Amsterdam The Floating Feather but there are fine examples in the Wallace Collection and Belton House in England and in the public galleries of Berlin Budapest Caen Cologne Copenhagen Detroit Dresden Dublin Florence Glasgow Hanover Karlsruhe Kassel London Lyon Lille Melbourne Montpellier Munich Paris Poltava Riga Rotterdam Rouen Stuttgart Schwerin Vaduz Warsaw and Vienna The largest Hondecoeter exhibition to date was held in Berlin in 2010 where 18 of his works were shown at the Neue Nationalgalerie as part of Willem de Rooij s installation Intolerance 5 Utah Museum of Fine ArtsIn popular culture editHis painting A Pelican and other Birds near a Pool otherwise known as The Floating Feather c 1680 was used by William Doyle musician for the cover of his album Great Spans of Muddy Time 6 Gallery edit nbsp A Cock and Two Hens with Chicks in a Landscape Setting 1656 95 oil on canvas 76 8 x cm National Trust nbsp Birds Butterflies and Frog with Plants and Fungi 1668 oil on canvas 68 3 x 56 8 cm National Gallery nbsp Backyard Birds 1660s oil on canvas 105 x 182 cm Musee Conde nbsp Animals and Plants of the Forest ca 1670 80 oil on canvas 81 2 x 64 7 cm Yale University Art Gallery nbsp Chickens and Ducks ca 1660 90 oil on canvas 115 x 136 cm Mauritshuis nbsp Concert of Birds 1670 oil on canvas 84 x 99 cm private collection nbsp Beast in Front of Noah s Ark ca 1680 oil on canvas Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum nbsp Fox with Dead Rooster and Poultry 1678 oil on canvas 148 x 170 cm Netherlands Art Collection nbsp Geflugelhof Poultry Farm ca 1675 99 oil on canvas 162 220 5 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum nbsp The Crow Exposed ca 1680 oil on canvas 170 2 211 5 cm Museum of Fine Arts Houston nbsp Pelican and Birds Near a Pool The Floating Feather ca 1680 oil on canvas 159 x144 cm Rijksmuseum nbsp The Poultry Yard 1690s oil on canvas 148 2 x 170 3 cm National Gallery of Victoria nbsp Roosters Fighting 1686 oil on canvas 104 x 136 5 cm Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe nbsp Ducks ca 1675 80 oil on canvas 93 x 116 cm Rijksmuseum nbsp Still Life with Animals ca 1680 90 oil on canvas 141 x 172 cm Museo del Prado nbsp A Diana Monkey with Four Colorful Birds ca 1690 oil on canvas 61 7 x 48 8 cm Toledo Museum of Art nbsp Girl with Peacocks ca 1680 oil on canvas 128 x 181 7 cm Museum of Fine Arts Reims girl likely painted by Jan de Baen nbsp Peacocks Male and Female 1681 oil on canvas 1 30 x 1 30 cm Petit Palais Musee des Beaux Arts de la Ville de Paris nbsp Cockatoo and Monkey by a Wicker Basket of Fruit no date oil on canvas 76 5 x 127 6 cm private collection nbsp Peacocks 1683 oil on canvas 190 2 x 134 6 cm Metropolitan Museum of ArtReferences edit Melchior Hondecoeter in Houbraken s Schouwburg Walter A Liedtke 2007 Dutch Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Volume 1 New York p 347 348 a b c nbsp One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain Chisholm Hugh ed 1911 Hondecoeter Melchior d Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 13 11th ed Cambridge University Press p 649 Hondecoeter in the RKD M Rikken Melchior d Hondecoeter Bird Painter in W de Rooij B Meyer Krahmer Intolerance Dusseldorf Feymedia 2010 p 9 32 Doyle William Great Spans of Muddy Time by William Doyle Bandcamp Retrieved 10 April 2021 nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Melchior d Hondecoeter External links edit50 artworks by or after Melchior d Hondecoeter at the Art UK site Rijksmuseum nl Intolerance installation Works and literature on Melchior d Hondecoeter Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Melchior d 27Hondecoeter amp oldid 1187858984, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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