A trompe l’oeil with two quails, a kingfisher, a bird net and a whistle

Details

JACOB BILTIUS (THE HAGUE 1633-1681 BERGEN OP ZOOM)
A trompe l’oeil with two quails, a kingfisher, a bird net and a whistle
signed and dated ‘J. biltiùs · fecit · / 1666’ (lower right)
oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. (55.4 x 40 cm.)

Provenance

Private collection, The Netherlands (with its pendant), from whom acquired by the following,
with Rob Smeets, Milan, by 2002; Sotheby’s, New York, 20 January 2006, lot 104 (with its pendant), where acquired by a private collector, by whom sold,
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 9 December 2010, lot 160, where acquired by the present owner.

Special notice

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Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Jacob Biltius specialized in game still lifes and is most known today for his trompe-l’oeils, which frequently include hunting instruments. Born in The Hague, Biltius was active in Amsterdam (1661-c. 1666; 1671), Maastricht (1666-70), Antwerp (1671-8), Leeuwarden(?) and Bergen op Zoom (by 1681). In 1660, he joined the Confrerie Pictura in The Hague, an artist’s association founded in 1656 by a group of artists who were dissatisfied with the city’s painters’ guild. Sometime between 1672 and 1673 he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp. His son, Cornelis, continued to produce trompe-l’oeil paintings in a similar style, principally in the German cities of Bonn and Cologne.

The pendant to the present painting was sold Sotheby’s, London, 8 December 2011, lot 242 (fig. 1).

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