Melchior DE HONDECOETER (1636-1695), Rooster with hen and chicks [Courtyard with hens].

oil, canvas; 121 x 81 cm;
Enclosed is a copy of a translation of an expert opinion from the German by Dr. Klaus Ertz.

"The painting was painted in the late 1660s in Amsterdam, where Melchior de Hondecoeter lived from 1663 and worked until his death. [...] Melchior was, like his father Gysbert de Hondecoeter and his uncle Jan Baptist Weenis, a painter of still life, hunting scenes and poultry. [...] Unique was his way of transferring to the canvas the color scheme of the glossy plumage of his characters in part. His compositions are full of drama, enhanced by the light used and the contrasting light and dark feathers of the poultry. [...]
Melchior unquestionably ranks among the undisputed major masters of Dutch poultry painting of the seventeenth century. The individual animals depicted very realistically appear to be small portraits of their species."
(From the expert opinion of Dr. Klaus Ertz.)