A spaniel, an eagle, a hare and a wicker basket with a jay, finches and other birds overlooked by two hounds, a mountainous landscape beyond

The artist was a pupil of Pieter Boel in Antwerp and became a master in 1663. He is alleged to have worked in Paris in the late 1660s alongside Nicasius Bernaerts before travelling to Rome in around 1671, where he was to remain for the next 17 years. The present picture has been dated to de Coninck's early years in Italy and it was with pictures of this kind - showing live animals and game in landscape settings - that the artist established his reputation. His pictures attracted some notable patrons, chief amongst whom was the 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700) who acquired no fewer than seven pictures from the artist in 1684 for Burghley House. This is amongst the largest known work by the artist, whose dimensions are only matched by a Game still life in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples, and another formerly with Wildenstein, Paris, both of which correspond almost exactly in size, thus making it tempting to presume they were all conceived as part of the same series.