Attributed to Frans Hals (Antwerp 1581/5-1666 Haarlem)

The rapid, angled brushstrokes and chalky ground are suggestive of the early genre paintings by Frans Hals, notably the Fisher Boy (Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland) and the Fruit and Vegetable Seller (Private Collection, England). Both are dated circa 1630 and the later, possibly like this, is a collaborative work. The similarities to these works by Frans Hals at the very least place this picture in Haarten and the costume of the figures dates it circa 1625-1630.

The various game and poultry spread across the table, as well as the fruit basket and pottery, illustrate a typical Netherlandish kitchen following a hunt. Though the kitchen maids, occupying half the picture plane, clean the day's spoils in preparation for cooking, the true focal point of this composition remains the skillfully painted still life elements. The carefully rendered feathers, woven basket, and water jug provide compositional solidity to a scene that effectively evokes domestic life in the early seventeenth-century Netherlands.