Lot 1557 Dα

The Flemish painter Peeter Gijsels is known for his finely executed landscapes in the style of Jan Brueghel. He also created numerous still lifes with game. Gijsels preferred to use the precious medium of copper for his paintings. This hunting still life is painted on an unusually large copper panel. The central motif of a swan and a deer under a tree can also be found in a work on canvas by Gijsels in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt (see database of the RKD, The Hague, no. 48929). According to Dr Fred Meijer, whom we would like to thank for attributing this work to Peeter Gijsels, the picture was probably painted not much later than a "Hunting Still Life with a Swan, a Peacock and a Heron" dated and signed in 1668 (Otto Naumann Collection Ltd., New York, see RKD database, no. 130806).
The particularly splendid and detailed swan is a recurring motif in Gijsel's still lifes. Fred Meijer suspects that parts of the background landscape were "modernised" by a later hand, possibly by Cornelis Huysmans (Antwerp 1648 - Mechelen 1727) at the beginning of the 18th century. Gijsels had probably originally painted a darker landscape, which was then altered, especially in the upper part of the picture, by adding a light sky and lightened foliage. The figure of the hunter sitting next to his prey is also a later addition and is probably by the hand of a third painter, who has not yet been identified.