Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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A frog, crouched in the foreground and glittering like a jewel, appears to be causing a stir. The male birds looking down at it seem angry or excited by its presence: they prowl, flutter their wings or glare, feathers ruffled. On a top branch is a chaffinch, fluffing out its plumage; its mate sits below, next to a tree sparrow. The bird closest to the frog, and about to attack, is probably a brambling, a kind of finch. There was great interest in the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Holland. Many collectors prized pictures like this for their accuracy, displaying them alongside scientific instruments and specimens including stuffed birds and animals. Melchior d'Hondecoeter may well have drawn and sketched his creatures from such a collection; he may even have had one himself.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi

Date

1668

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 68.3 x W 56.8 cm

Accession number

NG1222

Acquisition method

Presented by J. Whitworth Shaw, 1886

Work type

Painting

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