A Deerhound with Dead Game and Implements of the Chase, Jan Weenix (1708)
A powerful hound brings life into this picture – surrounded by dead creatures, the dog pauses, head turned, alert to the call of a horn blown by the huntsman on the right. Light bounces off the belly of a hare, the flowing curve of the heron’s wing and the dog’s snout. The artist’s considerable skills in depicting texture are displayed in the furs and feathers of the various beasts, such as the delicate frills of white hair on the dog’s breast.
By 1708, when Jan Weenix was court painter to the Elector Palatine in Düsseldorf, hunting was still largely confined to the aristocracy. This painting may have been commissioned by the Elector for his hunting lodge at Schloss Bensberg, just outside the city.
Discover more Old Masters in the following collections: