Melchior De Hondecoeter Biography
Melchior de Hondecoeter, or Hondecoutre or Hondekoeter or Hondecooten (Utrecht, 1636 – Amsterdam, 3 April 1695), was a Dutch painter, engraver, designer and interior decorator of the golden century, belonging to the North Holland school, specialized in still life and animal painting. He is the most famous member of a family of artists, probably originally from Antwerp, who came to the Netherlands because of his Protestant religious faith: both his father Gijsbert and his grandfather Gillis were painters. He learned the art of painting from his father and, upon his death in 1653, he continued his studies with Jan Baptist Weenix, who had married his father's sister, Josina. On 30 October 1658 Melchior d'Hondecoeter was a witness at the baptism of the son Gijsbertus of Maria d'Hondecoeter (daughter of Gillis d'Hondecoeter) and Alb. Cleynhens, in the Westerkerk of Amsterdam. His first clearly dated work is from this period (1658), although there is a still life with pheasants, whose dating can be understood as 1654. From August 1658 or 1659 he worked in The Hague, where, in October 1659 , became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke, in fact a payment of 15 florins on 15 October appears, and in 1662 head of the Schildersconfrerie (brotherhood of painters) or, according to Blok, of the Guild of Saint Luke itself. In addition to the painters of his family, such as Jan Baptist Weenix, he had relationships with various artists and art dealers. In January 1685 he estimated with Johan Rosa a large collection of paintings in Amsterdam.
