Jan Baptist Weenix Amsterdam 1621 - 1660/1 (?) Huis ter Mey near Utrecht

Robert von Hirsch;
F. Schwartz, Basel;
His heirs' sale, Zurich, Sotheby's, 4 June 1992, lot 557.

S. Sullivan, The Dutch Gamepiece, Woodridge 1984, p. 69;
A. van der Willigen and F.G. Meijer, A Dictionary of Dutch and Flemish Still-Life Painters Working in Oils 1525-1725, Leiden 2003, p. 215. 

The actual painting is less bright and has less contrast than the catalogue illustration suggests. The paint surface has rather firm relining, which has somewhat flattened the paint surface, and gusping is slightly visible. Showing in curves of the of the cloth The paint surface has grown slightly thin, but otherwise, seems to be in very good condition. Particularly the bird has been beautifully preserved. Some minor strengthening can be observed in the bird, e.g. in the left wing and foot. The paint surface is under a dirty layer of varnish. Inspection under ultra violet light is partly impeded by the dirty varnish layer, but does reveal a few tiny spots of retouching in the background, e.g. in the upper left, in the middle right, and in the lower right. Offered in a faux tortoise shell frame in fair condition. (MW)
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One or two painters known for other activities also painted a few superb game still lifes. The landscape painter Salomon van Ruysdael was one, and the painter of Italianate scenes Jan-Baptist Weenix was another.  Weenix painted a small number of game still lifes of which this and the one in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, are the only two that Van der Willigen and Meijer consider to be trompe l'oeils.  Both pictures are striking and highly accomplished and give an impression of spontaneity. In both Weenix uses the effect of strong light falling on the uneven plaster wall and the deep shadow cast by the bird to give the compositions a strong sense of depth, and because of the flat background, the visual effect is that the bird is projecting beyond the picture plane towards the viewer.

Scott Sullivan (see Literature)  points out that the pose of the partridge in the Noortman picture is almost identical to the one in a still life of game birds by Weenix in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. He thus dates the present picture circa 1649-50, and the Mauritshuis version a year or two later.