Lot 1043 Dα

Van Utrecht's large-format compositions with various poultry and birds are among the most sought-after pictorial subjects from his hand. This impressive composition from an Italian collection is a particularly striking example of this. At the centre is a proud turkey with its bright red head, shiny dark feathers and its female entourage. On the other side, a white gander competes with his own for the food bowls. Utrecht captures the psychology of the animals just as precisely as he is able to depict the appearance of the individual animals on canvas.
In 1961, the painting was purchased at Carlo Sestieri's gallery in Rome. In a letter to the buyer, Sestieri wrote that the painting originally came from the collection of John Julius Angerstein (1732 St. Petersburg - 1823 London), although he did not provide any further evidence for this statement. 38 paintings from this collection were part of the core collection when the National Gallery in London was founded and are still part of its inventory today.