Niche with Falconry Gear

probably 1660s

Christoffel Pierson

Painter, Dutch, 1631 - 1714

A cage, net, hunting horn, powder bag, pouch, two whistles, a bow and arrow, and a small, round hood for a bird are arranged in and around an arched niche set into a cream-white wall in this vertical still life painting. The objects are lit from our upper left so soft, slate-gray and powder-blue shadows are cast across the walls. The niche is framed with a wood border. Centered in the niche, the wooden cage has an arched top and closely spaced bars. The hood sitting atop the cage is a scarlet-red cap that would fit onto the head of a falcon. It is topped with a red pompom on a short stick, like an antenna. A sheathed knife with a bone-white handle and a long, curving, hunting horn lean against the front of the cage. The horn lightens from black where one would blow into the horn to a shimmering sage green at the wide end, which rests against the cage. A bow and arrow lie across the floor of the niche, under the cage, and a tangle of netting is tied to the horn, near the foot of the cage to our left. A pine-green whistle is affixed to or looped through the top of the cage, under the falcon’s hood, and hangs down past the ledge. A powder horn and bag hang on a canary-yellow cord looped over a nail driven into the wall over the alcove, to our left, and a pouch with a tassel hangs from a nail to our right.

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Born and trained in The Hague, Christoffel Pierson was one of the first artists to specialize in illusory images of hunting gear. Hunting was a popular activity for Dutch nobility throughout the seventeenth century. The Hague, where the Princes of Orange had their courtly residence and where the States General convened, became the center of a growing culture of hunting that spawned this new genre of painting around mid-century. Pierson, who painted a number of trompe l'oeil hunting pieces with falconry elements, emphasized three-dimensional effects with illusionistically painted frames and niches.

In Niche with Falconry Gear, Pierson has arranged various pieces of hunting equipment in and around a wooden-framed niche set into a white stucco wall. In the arched niche he has placed a hunting horn, a net, a bow and arrow, and a small birdcage surmounted by a falcon's hood with a red plume. Two different types of whistles hang from the cage. A powder bag and powder horn are suspended to the left of the niche, and a shoulder bag hangs to the right. His strong contrasts of light and shade enliven the image and strengthen the sense that bright daylight floods the scene.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 50

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Patrons' Permanent Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 80.5 x 64.5 cm (31 11/16 x 25 3/8 in.)
    framed: 94 x 77.8 x 4.5 cm (37 x 30 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    2003.39.1

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Niche with Falconry Gear, probably 1660s

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Capitain Page.[1] Temple Hargrove, Sr.; his estate; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, New York, 3 October 2001, no. 61); (Berenberg Fine Art, Lugano); purchased 12 March 2003 through (Rob Smeets, Milan) by NGA.
[1] This name appears on a label on the back of the painting.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2002

  • Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2002-2003, no. 62, repro.

2008

  • The Deluded Eye. Five Centuries of Deception, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2008-2009, no. 33, repro.

2014

  • Visual Deception, II: into the Future, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe; Nagoya City Art Museum, 2014-2015, no. 6, repro.

2022

  • Hyperreal: The Art of Trompe l'Oeil, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2022, no. 30, repro.

Bibliography

2002

  • Ebert-Schifferer, Sybille. Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil painting. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002:250, no. 62, 380, repro.

2003

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. "Christoffel Pierson: Niche with Falconry Gear." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 30 (Fall 2003): 18, color repro.

2008

  • Sidén, Karin. Lura Ögat: Fem sekelrs bländverk. Stockholm, 2008: 125, repro., 201, no. 33.

Inscriptions

lower right: Chr.Pierson.f

Wikidata ID

Q20177520

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