Stilleven met gevogelte

About this artwork

verzamelaarsmerk, verso, gestempeld: Lugt 2760

Art Historical Context

This delicate still-life drawing, *Stilleven met gevogelte* (Still Life with Poultry), was created by the Dutch artist Pieter Anthony Wakkerdak sometime between 1740 and 1774. Rendered on paper measuring just 229 by 175 millimeters, the work exemplifies the intimate scale often favored for works on paper during the eighteenth century. Though little is documented about Wakkerdak himself, the subject—a carefully arranged composition of game birds—reflects the enduring popularity of still-life subjects in Dutch art, where such images served both as celebrations of nature’s abundance and quiet meditations on transience. The choice of paper as a medium suggests the piece may have functioned as a finished drawing for a collector or as a preparatory study, allowing for fine detail and subtle tonal effects. A collector’s stamp on the reverse (Lugt 2760) further indicates that the sheet passed through distinguished hands, underscoring its appeal to later connoisseurs who valued the refined observation typical of Dutch graphic traditions. Today the drawing offers viewers a window into eighteenth-century attitudes toward the natural world, where everyday objects were transformed into quiet statements of beauty and mortality.

About the Artist

Pieter Anthony Wakkerdak · 1729–1774

Pieter Anthony Wakkerdak (1729–1774) was a Dutch printmaker, painter, draughtsman, publisher, and poet whose brief but productive career exemplified the versatility expected of 18th-century Dutch artists. Born on June 14, 1729, in Rotterdam and dying on November 28, 1774, in Delft at just forty-five years old, Wakkerdak worked across multiple media including mezzotint (black art), oil painting, en...