Melchior d'Hondecoeter, 'Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi', 1668
About the work
Overview
A frog, crouched in the foreground and glittering like a jewel, appears to be causing a stir. The male birds looking down at it seem angry or excited by its presence: they prowl, flutter their wings or glare, feathers ruffled. On a top branch is a chaffinch, fluffing out its plumage; its mate sits below, next to a tree sparrow. The bird closest to the frog, and about to attack, is probably a brambling, a kind of finch.
There was great interest in the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Holland. Many collectors prized pictures like this for their accuracy, displaying them alongside scientific instruments and specimens including stuffed birds and animals. Melchior d'Hondecoeter may well have drawn and sketched his creatures from such a collection; he may even have had one himself. Some collectors, however, bought works like his simply as exotic and dramatic additions to the decoration of their houses.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi
- Artist
- Melchior d'Hondecoeter
- Artist dates
- 1636 - 1695
- Date made
- 1668
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 68.3 × 56.8 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Presented by J. Whitworth Shaw, 1886
- Inventory number
- NG1222
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
-
1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.