Still Life with Swan and Game before a Country Estate – (Jan Weenix) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Jan Weenix

Date: 1685

Size: 173 x 202 cm

Technique: Oil On Canvas

The limp, dead bodies of a swan, rabbit, and three birds along with a live bird and a small dog are arranged on and near a low stone step in the bottom left corner of this horizontal painting. To our left and close to us, the white swan lies on its back on the step with its wings partly extended. Its long neck drapes toward us over the rabbit’s body, the bird’s head turned to our left. The rabbit has tawny-brown fur and lies stretched out on its side, its belly facing away from us. Tucked in the lower left corner of the painting, a fowl has a round body with cream-white and chestnut-brown feathers. The beaks of two more dead birds peek out from the shadows beyond the rabbit’s body. Behind the dead animals and taking up the left third of the painting, the square base of a fawn-brown stone column nearly reaches the top edge of the canvas. The front face is carved with a relief showing a woman and man huddled together as they look down in front of them, seemingly toward the swan. A yellow flower with narrow, tapered petals hangs over the upper left corner of the base and lavender-purple flowers, perhaps roses, peek around the base from our right. To our right of the dead animals, a bird with black, smoke-gray, and white feathers stands facing away from us with its wings flared back. Its emerald-green and gold head gleams in the stark light illuminating the scene from the lower left. It turns its head toward a small dog in the lower right corner. The dog has white and pale, honey-brown fur, a round face, blunt nose, and sable-brown floppy ears. The dog’s back half is cut off by the edge of the painting, and it seems to lean back as it looks toward the bird. A grapevine with broad, curling leaves winds into the painting behind and above the dog, ending with scrolling tendrils at the center of the composition. The leaves are fern green, some fading to a pale sage green or tan, and edged in brown. One leaf over the dog’s head is crimson red and tan, and a glistening cluster of green grapes lies on the ground near the dog’s front paws, to our left. Beyond the live bird and dog, a deep landscape opens up with statues lining a stepped walkway that leads to a rectangular reflecting pool. Several black and white birds the size of ducks stand in the shadowed background near the pool and more birds fly overhead. Backlit by the amber-gold sunset, tall trees with thin black trunks and caramel-brown leaves line the path leading to a tall narrow structure at the water’s edge. The golden sunset fades to a pale blue sky with drifting clouds over low mountains in the deep distance.