Artwork
A rooster with Hens and Chicks
A rooster with Hens and Chicks is an oil painting by the Biedermeier artist Albertus Verhoesen. It dates from 1855 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Classified within the genre of animal art, the work centers on the everyday life of the farmyard, a popular subject in nineteenth-century Dutch painting.
The painting depicts a domestic poultry scene featuring a rooster surrounded by hens and chicks. Classified within the genre of animal art, the work centers on the everyday life of the farmyard, a popular subject in nineteenth-century Dutch painting.
The rooster, hens, and chicks are rendered as a family group, evoking traditional associations with domesticity, fertility, and maternal care. The composition emphasizes the protective presence of the adult birds over the young, a motif commonly tied to themes of nurture and rural abundance.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on canvas, typical of Verhoesen's animal studies of the mid-nineteenth century. The rooster is set in the foreground with the hens and chicks grouped nearby, and the palette is restrained, dominated by earthy browns and ochres with brighter accents in the birds' combs and wattles.
History & Provenance
Albertus Verhoesen's A rooster with Hens and Chicks was executed in 1855 in oil on canvas and depicts a rooster, hens, and chicks within the genre of animal art. The work was previously owned by Jan van Swinderen before entering the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it is now held. Specific inventory or accession numbers for the work are not provided in the available sources.
Overview
Albertus Verhoesen’s oil painting A rooster with Hens and Chicks, executed in 1855, presents a small domestic scene of poultry. The work is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection and measures the interaction of a single rooster, three hens and four chicks within a modest, natural setting.
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