Two ducks with their young at the water, 1748

About the Work

Like “A Dove Swooping Down on a Group of Hens” by Dirck Dalens III. (Inv.-Nr. 36136), the scene of a duck family on the bank of a creek is a body colour copy after a painting by Melchior d’ Hondecoeter. Dirk Dalens probably executed it on commission from the collector, draughtsman and scholar Cornelis Ploos van Amstel. Comparison with cat. 51 reveals that Dalens – a landscape painter specialized in large-scale wall decorations – here handled the brush in a relatively loose and allusive manner that comes fully into its own only when viewed from a distance.