After David De Coninck, 17th Century, Flemish... Lot 17

After David De Coninck, 17th Century, Flemish c.1636-1701- Return from the hunt: A hare, game birds, and a dog; oil on canvas, 26.5 x 31.2 cm., (unframed). Provenance: Anon. sale, Tajan, Paris, 19 June 2018, lot 41 (part, as 'Attributed To David De Coninck'). Note: Raised in Antwerp, De Coninck was apprenticed in 1659 to Pieter Boel, and in 1663 became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. From 1671 to 1694 he was living in Rome, where he was a member of the resident circle of Dutch and Flemish painters. It was there where he secured his reputation as a highly respected painter of still lifes and landscapes with animals and hunting scenes, attracting such notable patrons as the Earl of Exeter (1648-1700), who acquired no fewer than seven of his pictures in 1684 for Burghley House. The present work is a near contemporary, smaller, and closer cropped interpretation of De Coninck's oil on canvas, offered at Sotheby's, New York, 29 January 2016, lot 514. The original composition must have found favour with De Coninck's clientele, as he himself not only executed it on more than one occasion, but also due to the fact that a number of anonymous copies and variants survive (as well as the present work, see, for example, Dorotheum, Vienna, 16 June 2011, lot 298). Like De Coninck, the artist here is clearly highly skilled in depicting animals and birds, and holds a keen sense for the drama of Baroque compositional effects. Please refer to department for condition report