Artist: Adriaen Cornelisz. Beeldemaker
Date: 1696
Size: 46 x 61 cm
Technique: Oil On Canvas
The subject of a hunter with a few dogs is one that Adriaen Beeldemaker depicted on many occasions. There are three greyhounds in this painting, as there are in his 1653 Hunter in the Rijksmuseum,6 while the other four are probably Brittany spaniels. The date is not fully legible, but the third digit is definitely a nine. The final one could be ‘6’ or ‘9’, so this is anyway a late work by the artist, since he died in 1709 and his last dated picture is from 1701.7 Although Beeldemaker is regarded as a specialist painter of dogs, and of hunting hounds in particular, his rendition of them is variable in quality, as is his output in general. Here they are relatively lively but the human figure was not his strongest suit, as his portraits show. The four dogs in the central foreground and the other three behind them are situated on a hillock. The tree on the left helps to give the vista a sense of great depth. The valley has an Italianate look with the buildings bathing in sunlight. Rarely did Beeldemaker make a landscape background as easily legible and attractive as this one. He usually made do with a few vague indications, as in a scene of 1695 with two hunters and a pack of hounds.8 That picture bears some relation to the one in the Rijksmuseum in its composition and subject. The foreground vegetation is also highly differentiated. Given the late date of execution and the fact that the standard of Beeldemaker’s work deteriorated badly after 1695, this canvas can still be counted as one of his better paintings, and for that reason the last digit of the date is more like to be a six than a nine. Richard Harmanni, 2022 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
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