Jan WEENIX (Amsterdam, 1641 - Amsterdam, 1719) - Lot 27

Jan WEENIX (Amsterdam, 1641 - Amsterdam, 1719) Hare hunting trophy Canvas. Signed lower right: J.Weenix f. 90 x 113 cm Jan Weenix began by painting lively landscapes in the manner of his father, Jan Baptist (1621-1659), before establishing himself as a painter of portraits and sumptuous still lifes. In the latter specialty, he is remarkable for his meticulous treatment of coats and feathers, as shown in the present painting. Our composition is exceptional in the artist's oeuvre: all his other hare still lifes are set against a landscape background and treated in a vertical format, with the animal hanging by a hind leg. It is also the only one to feature not one but two hares. Jan Weenix produced a series of at least seventeen large-scale decorations with hunting scenes for Bensberg Castle near Düsseldorf, commissioned by the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm von der Pfalz. In these canvases, now preserved in Munich, he took the trompe-l'oeil approach of painting a stone parapet at the bottom, on which, as here, the game or the hunter's accessories are placed.