ADRIAEN VAN UTRECHT | A PEACOCK, A PEAHEN, COCKERELS, HENS, DUCKS, DUCKLINGS AND CHICKS IN A FARMYARD

Probably M. Bergerat:

His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 30 January 1933, lot 21 (as Une Cour de Ferme, 151 x 205 cm.);

M. Wolff, Paris, 1941;

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 10 December 1993, lot 26;

With Richard Green London, 1994;

There acquired.

E. Greindl, La Siècle de Rubens, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, exhibition catalogue, Brussels 1965, p. 270, under cat. no. 286.

Van Utrecht, a Flemish painter (despite his name), received his early training as an apprentice to Herman de Ryt. Following his apprenticeship, he visited France, Italy and Germany to further his artistic education, and on 14 August 1624, he became master in the Antwerp guild of St. Luke. His oeuvre is mainly comprised of market scenes and still lifes of poultry, game, fish, fruit and vegetables. The present work is highly representative of the type of painting which made van Utrecht sought after in his native Antwerp, and in its abundance of animals also reflects the influence of the older Frans Snyders. It is one of the last works the artist ever executed, as he died only two years later, in 1652.

A smaller version, on panel, also signed and dated 1650 is in the Kunstmuseum, Basel. Greindl (see Literature, cat. no. 286) suggests that the Basel version is a smaller version, and not a preparatory study for the present canvas.