A wooded landscape with peacocks and other birds in the foreground

Little is known about Bogdani's early life or artistic education, he was born in Eperjes in Hungary and a family of artists who lived in that town, the Kramers, may have influenced his choice of career. He arrived in Amsterdam in 1684 where he lived with the German still-life painter Ernst Stuven, and produced austere still-life groupings of fruit in the Dutch tradition. By the spring of 1684, he was settled in London and his pictures of fruit and flower still-lifes and colourful birds in formal parkland or garden settings were soon much sought after by the English court and artistocracy. In 1694, in conjunction with Grinling Gibbons, he painted a set of flower-pieces for Queen Mary's 'Looking Glass Closet' in the Water Gallery at Hampton Court. He also supplied paintings for King William's palace at Dieren, Holland, and in 1698, accepted a commission from the Duke of Devonshire for a series of flower-pieces to decorate Chatsworth which was then being built. Through Queen Anne, another Royal patron, he met the Duke of Marlborough's younger brother, Admiral George Churchill, who had just been given the Little Park at Windsor where he created a famous aviary. The Admiral became one of his most important patrons and invited Bogdani to study and paint the many exotic species of bird in his aviary. Some of the large number of Bogdani pictures that the Admiral acquired were purchased after his death by Queen Anne for Hampton Court. Bogdani's success enabled him to purchase property at Finchley, London, and Spalding, Lincolnshire, and he became Lord of the Manor at Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

This picture shows a variety of birds. A male peacock ('pied') in the centre and working anti-clockwise from top centre: blackbird, black-capped lory, great tit, jay, hoopoe, guinea fowl ('pied'), unidentified young, lapwing, female peahen, and blackbird (white variety). Bogdani studied live specimens in avaries and also painted from stuffed models, a small collection of which he had in his studio, which he left to his son-in-law Tobias Stranover after his death. The hanging tit in this picture is based on one of his own models and appears in other Bogdani compositions.