Antwerp School, mid-17th century

Baron Heinrich von Tucher, Nuremberg;

From whom acquired by Julius Neumann, Vienna, in 1910;

Thence by descent in the family until confiscated in 1938;

Anonymous sale, Vienna, Dorotheum, 2 June 1942, lot 87a (as Circle of Hondecoeter);

There acquired by Loescher;

From whom probably acquired by C.F. Ernst Schmidt, who offered the picture to the special representative for Linz on 26 February 1944 for RM 180,000 and acquired for the Linz Museum on 16 March 1944;

Restituted to the heirs of Julius Neumann, 2003.  

B. Kirchmayr, "Im Hinblick auf die vorgesehene starke Beteiligung Ihres Museums an den Zuweisungen aus den beschlagnahmten Kunstgütern," in ... wesentlich mehr Fälle als angenommen, Wien 2009, pp. 307-309.  

This large and dynamic scene was painted in Antwerp in the mid-17^th century. The bustling composition features two birds of prey creating chaos within a henhouse as a young boy runs in to calm the disorder. One bird of prey has already made an attack while another makes a diagonal nosedive into the scene filled with hens and other fowl squawking with alarm. The cacophony of their panic is visually embodied in the energy of the scene, which may also be a subtle reference the conflict between the Catholic Southern Netherlands (birds of prey) and the Protestant Northern Netherlands (hens) during the Eighty-Years War (circa 1566/68 – 1648). 

Several versions of the present composition are known, all of which probably follow a now-lost original, perhaps one that was once in the Rothschild collection. While Jacob Jordaens is the likely author of the boy in the lost original, the birds were probably painted by an artist closer to Jan Fijt rather than Adriaen van Utrecht or Melchior Hondecoeter, two artists who have been proposed in the past. 

We are grateful to Fred G. Meijer for his assistance in the cataloguing of the present lot.

A Note on Provenance:

In 1910, Julius Neumann acquired this still-life from Baron Heinrich von Tucher of Nuremberg. The painting remained in his collection until it was confiscated by the Nazis in 1938. The painting then appeared for sale at the Dorotheum in Vienna as Circle of Melchior Hondecoeter in June of 1942, whereafter it was acquired for the Linz Museum in February 1944. In 2003, the painting was restituted to the descendants of Julius Neumann.