Lot 2111 Dα

Nowadays Jacob Samuel Beck is primarily known for his still lifes and animal paintings, but he was also a successful portrait and narrative painter, with his large altar panels for Erfurt cathedral and the sleeping Venus in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung being among many great works in these genres. The present canvas represents a more characteristic example of his works, in which he presents a dramatic composition with a small group of animals shown in close up. This piece depicts a cockerel with outspread wings attempting to frighten its adversary, the polecat, which is shown in the lower left of the image. The hen to the right of the work is largely obscured by the diagonally aligned plinth. The rooster motif can be found in a similar work by Beck housed in a Swedish collection, whereas the polecat is seen in a monogrammed oil study in the Angermuseum in Erfurt (inv. no. X 976).
We would like to thank Dr. Martin Franke, Lohr am Main, for his kind help in cataloguing this work and confirming its authenticity upon examination of digital photographs.