This small game piece is a mature work by Fyt, whose subtle description of textures—especially in feathers—recalls Dutch still lifes more than works by his Antwerp teacher, Frans Snyders (1579–1657). The popularity of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish painting in eighteenth-century France influenced painters as diverse as Chardin and Fragonard.
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Title:A Partridge and Small Game Birds
Artist:Jan Fyt (Flemish, 1611–1661)
Date:1650s
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:18 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. (46.4 x 36.2 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, 1871
Object Number:71.45
Inscription: Signed (lower left): ·Joannes·FYT·
private collection, Paris (until 1870); William T. Blodgett, Paris (from 1870; sold half share to Johnston); William T. Blodgett, Paris, and John Taylor Johnston, New York (1870–71; sold to The Met)
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art—Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 6, 2012–January 4, 2013, no. 31.
Beijing. National Museum of China. "Earth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art—Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," February 8–May 9, 2013, no. 31.
T. G. A. "Fine Arts: A Collection of Old Masters in New York." Old and New 5 (May 1872), p. 629.
F[ritz von]. Harck. "Berichte und Mittheilungen aus Sammlungen und Museen, über staatliche Kunstpflege und Restaurationen, neue Funde: Aus amerikanischen Galerien." Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 11 (1888), p. 74, as a very good and fully signed work by Fyt.
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 39, as "Still Life: Partridges".
Edith Greindl. Les peintres flamands de nature morte au XVIIe siècle. Brussels, 1956, p. 161, claims it is by Fyt and records the signature.
Walter A. Liedtke. Flemish Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, vol. 1, pp. 100–101; vol. 2, pl. 44, as "Still Life: Partridge and Small Game Birds".
Introduction by Walter A. Liedtke inFlemish Paintings in America: A Survey of Early Netherlandish and Flemish Paintings in the Public Collections of North America. Antwerp, 1992, p. 20.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 292, ill., as "A Partridge and Small Game Birds".
Katharine Baetjer. "Buying Pictures for New York: The Founding Purchase of 1871." Metropolitan Museum Journal 39 (2004), pp. 197, 210, 245, appendix 1A no. 115, ill. p. 211.
Walter Liedtke inEarth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art; Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2012, pp. 219–20, no. 31, ill. [Chinese ed., Hefei Shi, 2013, pp. 70–71, no. 31, ill. (color)].
Peter Barnet and Wendy A. Stein inEarth, Sea, and Sky: Nature in Western Art; Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. [Tokyo], 2012, p. 76, ill. pp. 35, 83 (color).
Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, Antwerp 1599–1641 London)
ca. 1622
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