Melchior d'Hondecoeter

Melchior d'Hondecoeter (c. 1636 to 3 April 1695) was a Dutch animalier painter, born in Utrecht and died in Amsterdam. After the start of his career he painted almost exclusively bird subjects, usually exotic or game birds set in park-like landscapes, among them geese, partridges, pigeons, ducks, magpies, peacocks, cockatoos and cranes. He came from an artistic family, as the grandson of the painter Gillis d'Hondecoeter and the son of Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter, and was a cousin of Jan Weenix. By 1659 he was working in The Hague and belonged to the painters' confraternity Pictura, and he later settled in Amsterdam. Unlike painters who showed birds as a gamekeeper's bag or a poulterer's stock, he depicted them as living creatures full of action, quarrels and maternal care. Stadtholder William III employed him to paint the menagerie at Het Loo. Notable works include The Floating Feather and A Park with Poultry (1686), and his paintings hang in museums across Europe.