Melchior d'Hondecoeter
Encyclopedia
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
animalier
Animalier
An animalier is an artist, mainly from the 19th century, who specializes in, or is known for, skill in the realistic portrayal of animals. "Animal painter" is the more general term for earlier artists...
painter, was born in Utrecht
Utrecht (city)
Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...
and died in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. 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
Brent Goose
The Brant or Brent Goose, Branta bernicla, is a species of goose of the genus Branta. The Black Brant is an American subspecies. The specific descriptor bernicla is from the same source as "barnacle" in Barnacle Goose, which looks similar but is not a close relation.-Appearance:The Brant Goose is...
, Egyptian brent and red-breasted brent), fieldfare
Fieldfare
The Fieldfare is a member of the thrush family Turdidae. It breeds in woodland and scrub in northern Europe and Asia. It is strongly migratory, with many northern birds moving south during the winter. It is a very rare breeder in Great Britain and Ireland, but winters in large numbers in these...
s, partridges, pigeons, ducks, magpies and peacocks, but also African grey crowned crane
Grey Crowned Crane
The Grey Crowned Crane is a bird in the crane family Gruidae. It occurs in dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats. This animal does not migrate....
s, Asian sarus crane
Sarus Crane
The Sarus Crane is a large non-migratory crane found in parts of the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m , they are conspicuous and iconic species of open wetlands...
s, Indonesian Yellow-crested Cockatoo
Yellow-crested Cockatoo
The Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Cacatua sulphurea, also known as the Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, is a medium-sized cockatoo with white plumage, bluish-white bare orbital skin, grey feet, a black bill, and a retractile yellow crest. The sexes are similar...
s, an Indonesian Purple-naped Lory
Purple-naped Lory
The Purple-naped Lory, Lorius domicella is a monotypic species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is forest-dwelling endemic to the islands of Seram, Ambon, and perhaps also Haruku and Saparua, South Maluku, Indonesia. It is considered vulnerable, the main threat being from trapping for the...
and Grey-headed Lovebird
Grey-headed Lovebird
The Grey-headed Lovebird or Madagascar Lovebird is a small species of parrot of the lovebird genus. It is a mainly green parrot. The species is sexually dimorphic and only the adult male had a grey upper body. They are native on the island of Madagascar and are the only lovebird species which are...
s from Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
.
Biography
Being the grandson of painter Gillis d'HondecoeterGillis d'Hondecoeter
Gillis Claesz. de Hondecoeter or d'Hondecoeter was a Dutch painter, working in a Flemish style, painting landscapes, trees, fowl and birds. Later on d'Hondecoeter painted in a more Dutch, realistic style...
and son of Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter
Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter
Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter , was a Dutch landscape and animalier painter. -Biography:Hondecoeter belonged to a family of painters. His father was Gillis d'Hondecoeter and his son was Melchior d'Hondecoeter. Hondecoeter primarily painted works of barnyard fowl. Some of his works can be found at the...
, as well as nephew of Jan Baptist Weenix
Jan Baptist Weenix
Jan Baptist Weenix , a painter of the Dutch Golden Age. Despite his relatively brief career, he was a very productive and versatile painter. His favourite subjects were Italian landscapes with large figures among ruins, seaside views, and, later in life, large still life pictures of dead game or dogs...
, he was brought up by Weenix in the profession of painting when his father died. Weenix told Arnold Houbraken
Arnold Houbraken
Arnold Houbraken was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age. He had ten children. His son Jacobus Houbraken was an engraver of portraits and book illustrations, including books by his father...
that in his youth Melchior was extremely religious, praying very loud, so that his mother and uncle doubted if they would have him trained as a painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
or a minister.
In 1659 he was working in the Hague and became a member of the painters' academy there. In 1663 Hondecoeter married Susanne Tradel in Amsterdam. She is said to have been captious, and she had her sisters living in their house, and so Hondecoeter spent much time in his garden or drinking in the tavern in the Jordaan
Jordaan
The Jordaan is a district of the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The area is bordered by the Lijnbaansgracht canal to the west, the Prinsengracht to the east, the Brouwersgracht to the north and the Leidsegracht to the south...
. On the Lauriergracht, where he lived for a time, he was surrounded by art dealers and various painters. Later he moved to a house on Prinsengracht (near Anne Frank House
Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank House on Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime diarist Anne Frank, who hid from Nazi persecution with her family and four other people in hidden rooms at the rear of the building...
). In 1686 he bought a small countryhouse in Vreeland
Vreeland
Vreeland is a city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It was a part of the former municipality of Loenen. Since 2011 it has made part of the new formed municipality of Stichtse Vecht. It is located on the river Vecht, about 2 km north of Loenen aan de Vecht. It received city rights in 1265....
along the Vecht (Utrecht)
Vecht (Utrecht)
thumb|right|[[Satellite]] [[image]] of the surroundings of [[Utrecht |Utrecht]] showing river Vecht and the [[Amsterdam-Rhine Canal]] .220px|thumb|right|Location of river Vecht ....
. Hondecoeter died in the house of his daughter Isabel in Warmoesstraat
Warmoesstraat
Warmoesstraat is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to the river Amstel from Amsterdam Centraal railway station to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street...
but was buried in Westerkerk
Westerkerk
The Westerkerk is a church of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands denomination in Amsterdam, built in 1620-1631 after a design by Hendrick de Keyser. It is next to Amsterdam's Jordaan district, on the bank of the Prinsengracht canal....
. His inventory lists a small gallows, to keep birds in the right position, and several 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 gallery of Brunswick
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
. But 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, his Dutch rival's birds are full of action; and, as Burger truly says, "Hondecoeter displays the maternity of the hen with as much tenderness and feeling as Raphael the maternity of Madonnas."
Earl Cadogan
Earl Cadogan is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Great Britain. The Cadogan family descends from Major William Cadogan, a cavalry officer in Oliver Cromwell's army. His son Henry Cadogan was a barrister in Dublin. His eldest son William Cadogan was a noted soldier, politician...
has a variety; or Game and Poultry and A Spaniel hunting a Partridge (1672), in the gallery of Brussels; or A Park with Poultry (1686) at the Hermitage
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
of St Petersburg.
William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
employed Hondecoeter, in great favour with the magnates of the Netherlands, to paint his menagerie at Het Loo
Het Loo
Het Loo Palace is a palace in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. The symmetrical Dutch Baroque building was designed by Jacob Roman and Johan van Swieten and was built between 1684 and 1686 for stadtholder-king William III and Mary II of England...
, 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.
His masterpieces are at the Hague, Soestdijk
Soestdijk
Soestdijk was a village in the municipality of Soest, Utrecht, Netherlands and gives its name to Paleis Soestdijk, which from 1937 to 2004 was the residence of Princess and later Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard ....
and at Amsterdam. But there are fine examples in the Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
and Belton House
Belton House
Belton House is a Grade I listed country house in Belton near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The mansion is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a larger wooded park...
in England, and in the public galleries of Berlin, Caen, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dresden, Dublin, Florence, Glasgow, Hannover, London, Lyons, Lille, Montpellier, Munich, Paris, Rotterdam, Rouen, St Petersburg, Stuttgart, Schwerin 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
Willem de Rooij
Willem de Rooij is an artist working in a variety of media, including film and installation.-Biography:Willem de Rooij studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 1990–95 and at the Rijksakademie there from 1997-98...
's installation 'Intolerance'.
External links
- Rijksmuseum.nl
- http://www.intolerance-berlin.de/en/installation.html
- Works and literature on Melchior d'Hondecoeter