*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Dirk Valkenburg* 1675 – Amsterdam – 1727 A Still Life of Game Oil on canvas 20 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches (53 x 45.4 cm) Provenance: Private Collection, USA Dirk Valkenburg was born in Amsterdam, where he became a pupil, first of a certain Kuilenburg, then of the portrait-and genre painter Michiel van Musscher and finally of Jan Weenix, the highly successful painter of animals and still lifes. In 1696, Valkenburg left Amsterdam to travel south and here he met with success, first in Augsburg and two years later in Vienna. Around 1701 he returned to Amsterdam, where he acquired citizenship in March of 1703. In 1706, under contract from for the Amsterdam plantation owner Jonas Witsen, he traveled to Surinam in order to draw and paint scenes on Witsen’s plantations as well as the rare birds and plants found there. Due to illness, Valkenburg returned earlier than planned, probably with the autumn fleet of 1707, but with a large number of finished works nonetheless, in particular drawings. He spent the rest of his life in Amsterdam. Apart from still lifes, Dirk Valkenburg is known for Surinam landscapes and outdoor genre scenes, for poultry yards and scenes with wild animals, as well as for portraits, although only few of his many portraits survive. Valkenburg is mainly renowned for his paintings of still lifes of game and live animals – often combining the two motifs. Already early on, he proved himself a keen and able follower of his last teacher, Jan Weenix, which, during his stay in Vienna resulted in commissions of several large pictures in Weenix’s style, among others for the Prince of Lichtenstein. As a result, in 1699, Valkenburg delivered a set of four magnificent paintings to Johann Adam von Leichtenstein. They had been commissioned during the previous year, and they have been preserved in the princely collection to the present day. The artist received the considerable sum of one thousand guilders for these four large canvases. The Lichtenstein paintings clearly demonstrate Valkenburg’s dependence on Jan Weenix’s example, but at the same time they show how he had attained an individual quality that could compete effortlessly with that of his example. It is no wonder that another sizeable example of his work, in the Statens Museum in Copenhagen, received a false Weenix signature in the past, and was only recognized as a work of Dirk Valkenburg in the last century. In our piece A Still Life of Game, Dirk Valkenburg has depicted a theatrical scene with a dead lory hanging in a niche. Despite the simplicity of this piece it is strongly marked by its elegance and virtuosity. Using a subtle range of red, blue, white and brown colors, Valkenburg has rendered the color and texture of the bird’s plumage with great fidelity. This forceful and yet detailed treatment of the bird’s feathers, those of the wings in particular, is shared with most of Valkenburg’s previous paintings. Another feature in this piece, which can be found in many other works by Valkenburg, is the rendering of the drops of blood on the ledge, which he gave an unnaturally thick, syrupy texture. The bird is suspended on a string. The illusion is quite good, to deceive our eye, making the viewer believe that the bird is protruding into the room where one is standing. The treatment of the this piece of string, with which the lory’s leg has been attached to the nail at the top would appear to come out of the same fascination that led the artist to include twisty twigs and thin, curvy weeds in many works. It also squares with the predilection for detail with which he would render a hare’s fur almost hair-by-hair. The brilliant red colors of the bird create a beautiful contrast to the dark palette used for the niche in which the bird is hanging. Indeed, contrasts are used in this painting to great effect. Thus, we notice the solidity of the niche versus the precarious character of the game and the rough stone worked by human hands versus the fineness and wealth of texture produced by the natural world. Like most still lifes of game, this painting doubtless contains an element of vanity. Perhaps even more so than a painting of a dead partridge or pigeon, since the bird’s attractive bright red plumage is of no use to the animal after death. However, precisely because of the red plumage, this still life is more attractive than many game still life of a similar type.