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Lot 187
MELCHIOR D'HONDECOETER (UTRECHT 1636-1695 AMSTERDAM) AND ANOTHER HAND
Portrait of a lady in as the goddess Diana and her attendant, with the spoils of the chase
Closed9 July 2021
Price Realised
GBP 22,500
More Information
Specialist note
We are grateful to Dr. Fred G. Meijer for proposing the attribution on the basis of photographs. Dr. Meijer believes the game, and also probably the dogs, to have been executed by Hondecoeter, comparing it to a smaller still life featuring the hare, dated 1668 (see S.A. Sullivan, The Dutch Game Piece, Totowa, 1984, p. 55, fig. 107), and another in the Museum Bredius, The Hague, dated to circa 1670.
As Hondecoeter moved from The Hague to Amsterdam in 1663, this picture may have been painted in either of the two towns. Dr. Meijer dates the work to the first half of the 1660s on the basis of the dress. He notes that the figures may have been painted by an as yet unidentified figure painter with whom Hondecoeter collaborated, and were probably portraits, with the left possibly named Diana, in the guise of her mythological namesake.
As Hondecoeter moved from The Hague to Amsterdam in 1663, this picture may have been painted in either of the two towns. Dr. Meijer dates the work to the first half of the 1660s on the basis of the dress. He notes that the figures may have been painted by an as yet unidentified figure painter with whom Hondecoeter collaborated, and were probably portraits, with the left possibly named Diana, in the guise of her mythological namesake.