Artwork
Still life with a hare, a heron and other birds
Still life with a hare, a heron and other birds is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Elias Vonck. It dates from 1650 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Technique & Style
Executed in 1650, this still life by Elias Vonck is an oil painting on canvas. The work measures 100 cm in height and 92 cm in width. As a representative piece of the still-life genre, the composition features a hare, a heron, and various other birds.
The application of oil paint on a textile support aligns with standard Dutch Golden Age practices for works of this scale and subject matter.
History & Provenance
The painting has been in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it remains held as an oil-on-canvas work by Elias Vonck.
The painting has been in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it remains held as an oil-on-canvas work by Elias Vonck. Its measured dimensions are 100 cm in height by 92 cm in width, and it is catalogued within the museum's holdings as a still life depicting birds, dated to 1650.
No specific inventory or accession number, nor any documented exhibition history, is recorded in the available sources for this work.
Context
Elias Vonck's 1650 oil painting Still life with a hare, a heron and other birds exemplifies Dutch Golden Age still life conventions while demonstrating the artist's specialized interest in avian subjects. The work, housed in the Rijksmuseum collection, features a hare alongside a heron and additional birds rendered in oil on canvas measuring 100 by 92 centimeters. Scholarship emphasizes Vonck's contribution to bird-focused still lifes within the broader Dutch realist tradition, situating this piece within his distinctive wildlife depictions rather than general still life categories.
Legacy
Elias Vonck's Still life with a hare, a heron and other birds (1650) influenced Dutch Baroque still-life painters through its vivid bird subjects and naturalistic detail. The work's depiction of avian life contributed to genre conventions later seen in the works of Melchior d'Hondecoeter and Rachel Ruysch. Its presence in the Rijksmuseum collection has reinforced scholarly attention to early Dutch bird painting.
The painting's composition and use of oil on canvas remain frequently referenced in studies of 17th-century animal depictions.
Overview
Elias Vonck’s oil painting, Still life with a hare, a heron and other birds, dates from around 1650. Executed in the Dutch still‑life tradition, the work presents a composition of dead game arranged on a darkened surface. The canvas is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection, where it is displayed among other 17th‑century Dutch paintings.
Subject & Meaning
The central figure is a lifeless hare, its fur rendered with a softness that contrasts with its inert posture. To the side a heron lies with its wings spread, its plumage appearing dull and tangled, while several smaller birds are scattered, their wings caught in a moment of stillness. The grouping evokes themes of mortality and the transient nature of life, common in vanitas still‑lifes.
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