Circle of Pieter Boel
1622 - 1674
A Frisian Water Dog (Wetterhoun) in a Landscape
Medium:
Oil on Canvas
Category:
Dimensions:
83(h) x 99(w) cms
Framed Dimensions:
96(h) x 112(w) cms
Exhibitions:
Essay:
Pieter Boel was surrounded by artists from birth. His father Jan was an engraver and art dealer. His uncle, Quirin Boel the Elder, worked as an engraver, as did Pieter's brother, Quirin Boel the Younger. It is thought that Boel began his career as a pupil of Frans Snyders and later of Johannes Fyt, two artists who were to shape his future artistic output. Indeed Fyt's handling of paint was to prove most influential on the younger artist.
In the late 1640s Boel travelled to Rome and Genoa, staying with his uncle Cornelis de Wael, who was also an artist and art dealer. In 1650 he became a master of the Antwerp Guild and that same year married he Maria Blanckert, with whom he had four children.
In 1668 he moved to Paris, where he supplied designs to the Gobelins factory. Boel was honoured to be made Peintre Ordinaire to Louis XIV six years later but, sadly, died that same year. Some of his most fascinating works, in the form of oil sketches and drawings of animals and birds, are now housed in the Louvre and go some way to showing just how dedicated and skilled he was as a painter of these subject matters. His sons Jan Baptist and Balthazar Lucas were both pupils of his, as was the painter David de Coninck. All of them followed his example, specialising in animal and bird painting. His influence extends further than to his immediate pupils, however, and can be traced well into the 18th century. The animal painters François Desportes and Jean-Baptiste Oudry gleaned much knowledge and inspiration from studying his substantial oeuvre in France.
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Frisian water dogs, also known as Wetterhouns, have a distinctive sturdy build and a thick curly coat. During the 1600s the breed were trained as otter-hunters. Eel trading in the Low Countries was a thriving industry during this period and eel fishermen would have been keen to eliminate competition for their catch. Moreover, otters themselves were delicacies and their hide could be sold for as much as 25 guilders.
It is interesting to note that the artist appears to have more in common with the Flemish tradition of painting of Pieter Boel than the Dutch manner which is where the Frisian dog would most likely have come from.
Provenance:
The Sporting Gallery, Virginia, USA, 1968;
Private collection, USA
