A sportsman offered refreshment outside an inn while his dogs rest after a hunt

This picture, dated 1651, is one of the earliest recorded works by Abraham Hondius. Painted when the artist was no more than 20 years old, it demonstrates his already prodigious talent when working in Rotterdam before his move to Amsterdam in 1659. The painter later moved to London where he worked from circa 1671 until his death. The majority of his works depict animals or hunting scenes, following a tradition established by Antwerp artists like Frans Snyders, Paul de Vos and Jan Fyt, whose work would have been well known in the Netherlands throughout Hondius’ career.

During his formative years, Hondius frequently returned to depictions of the restful moments before or after the hunt, rendering the surrounding foliage and vegetation with great accuracy and detailed observation. Other early works by the painter, such as a vertical hunting scene, dated 1652 (sold Sotheby’s, London, 16 April 1980, lot 2, as ‘J.B. Weenix’), draw elements from the present composition, particularly in the animals and surrounding figures. The artist’s early training is said to have been in the workshop of Cornelis Saftleven, whose influence can be felt in the present work’s earthly tones and dramatic effects of light, while the shadowed figures in the doorway reveal the influence of genre scenes by Adriaen Brower and David Teniers the Younger.