70.000 €
A dead deer, a basket of fruit with a cockatoo on a draped table, a dog and a cat playing below near a basket of dead birds, hares hanging from a game ring at left, a landscape beyond at right
Oil on canvas : 160,7 X 225 cm
Bears two fake signatures “J:fy(t)” and “F:Snyde(rs)” lower right
(under the cat peeping from under the tablecloth)
Frame : 183,7 X 248 cm
I would like to thank Fred Meijer for his attribution and for dating the painting circa 1650
I am currently documenting this painting
In short
Our lively still life was painted circa 1650 in the workshop of Jan Fyt: it is an important original composition holding several favourite elements of the Master himself. Both signatures are fake; furthermore our painting holds no link with Frans Snyders, whom Fyt actually studied painting with.
About Jan Fyt
Flemish painter
Antwerp 1611 – 1661 Antwerp
Important and prolific painter of game pieces, of flower and fruit still lifes and of live animals.
His name is sometimes spelt “Joannes Fijt”.
Pupil of the further unknown Hans van den Berghe (who was in fact a restorer of paintings), when he was scarcely more than ten years old, and of Frans Snyders (Antwerp 1579 – 1657 Antwerp).
Master in the local Painter’s Guild in 1630.
Fyt made a long journey through France and Italy: he is documented in 1633 in Paris, in 1635 in Venice, Naples, Florence and possibly Genoa. That same year he must have joined the Schildersbent in Rome, a society, founded in or circa 1623, of Dutch, Flemish, a few German and a single French painter. Its members were called the Bentvueghels (“group of birds”) and each received a nickname; Fyt was called “Goudvink” (“bullfinch”).
Fyt was back in Antwerp before September 1641. He stayed here almost uninterruptedly until his death twenty years later. In Saur, 1992 a short voyage in the Northern Netherlands in 1642 is mentioned.
Fyt had two important pupils in Antwerp:
- Peeter Boel (Antwerp 1622 – 1674 Paris) who worked in Genoa (1647 – 1649, Antwerp (1650 – 1668) and Paris (1669 – 1674).
- Jacques van de Kerckhove (Antwerp 1636/37 – 1712 Venice) who worked in Antwerp (1649 – 1657) and above all in Venice (1685 – 1712).
In 1650 Fyt joined the Guild of the Romanists, artists who had visited Rome. Two years later he was already the dean of this guild.
He only got married in 1654, seven years before his death. The couple had four children.
About our painting
Fyt is known for his technical mastery and bold facility in the representation of animals, of their furs and especially of the plumes of birds. He painted a vast, but varied number of pictures with facility and power.
Our grand hunting still life was painted by a yet unidentified assistant of Jan Fyt, active in his workshop circa 1650. This painter has successfully combined elements from several different paintings by Fyt into a new, original, dynamic composition.
This painting must have been made for an important patron, a nobleman or a rich merchant. Hunting had always been a very prestigious sport, limited as much as possible to the nobility. It was actually prohibited for the lower classes of society to hunt and poachers and other illegitimate hunters were severely prosecuted. Through the acquisition of game pieces the members of the urban elite associated themselves with a lifestyle reserved for aristocrats.
I do not know when the two fake signatures have been added.
The link with Fyt is evident: the deer, the two hares at left, the playful dog and cat, the basket filled with birds and the background landscape with a dramatic sky with a vibrant light shining through the clouds regularly appear in paintings of Jan Fyt. Even the yellow-crested cockatoo apears in two still lifes by Fyt.
On the other hand I do not see any connection with Frans Snyders.
Why should you buy this painting?
Because this original arrangement is a successful contemporary ode to the art of Jan Fyt.