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Description: | An amber-coloured, speckled cockerel puffs himself up and crows at the edge of a pond on which three ducks and two ducklings are swimming. A speckled hen behind picks up straw in its beak from the ground. Some weeds are growing on the right. There are two ducklings at the side of the pond in the foreground and a couple of goslings on the opposite bank, beside a wooden fence. Behind the cock and hen is a tree and a large rock. A river landscape stretches into the distance to the left and a seated figure can be seen on the bank. The pink-tinged clouds hanging low in the sky suggest that it is early evening.
Virag 10/12/2004, Although some of his works from 1668 onwards are dated, paintings by Melchior de Hondecoeter are notoriously difficult to date because little change in style is discernable during the course of his career, spent almost entirely depicting birds.
A similar setting to NCM 1939-1, with foreground pond and background shoreline to left, can be seen in a painting by Hondecoeter, "Geese and Ducks" exhibited as no.5 in "Melchior de Hondecoeter (1636-1693)", Akademie Der Bildenden Kunste, Vienna, 1968.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 1958 by W. Holder & Sons, when the stretcher, which contained active woodworm, was replaced and some loose paint secured at the top of the painting. The painting may also have had old varnish and old repaintings removed.
The painting was on display and so could not be examined.
Virag 10/12/2004, Collection of Mrs Elizabeth Holbrooke
Accession number: NCM 1939-1 | Subjects: | animals landscapes | Source: | Nottingham City Museums and Galleries | Creator: | by HONDECOETER/Melchior De (1636-1695) | Identifier: | http://media.culturegrid.org.uk/mediaLib... | Go to resource |
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