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Cockerel spreading its wings

Maker

(artist)
1686-1755

After
(artist)
1622-1674

Formerly attributed to
(artist)
1636-1695

Title

Date of Production

1700 - 1799

Medium

black and white chalk on blue laid paper, laid down on a historic support

Dimensions

Height: 27.8 cm
Width: 39.3 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2456

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

This drawing, copied by Oudry from an oil sketch design by Pieter Boel for a tapestry, captures the awkwardness of wings used to maintain balance on the ground, rather than to fly through the air. Oudry drew a similarly posed cockerel in an illustration to one of La Fontaine's 'Fables', called 'La Perdrix et les Coqs', in which cockerels are characterised (by a female partridge) as 'impolite and bad mannered, always noisy and violent'. These characteristics are echoed here in the tension between the detailed evocation of the beauty of the bird's wings, and their awkwardness and aggression when 'out of their element'.

Provenance

Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter (1778-1869); his estate sale, Sotheby's (London), 5 November 1930, lot 56 (as by Hondecoeter); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

The Four Elements, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1996

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 04/07/1991-06/10/1991

A selection of drawings from the Witt collection: French drawings c. 1600-c. 1800, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1962 ...More

French Master Drawings, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, 1962

French 17th Century Drawings, Bristol City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1956

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London; York City Art Gallery; Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953

Old Masters from the Witt Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 01/01/1943-01/05/1943 ...Less

Literature

French Drawings: XVI-XIX Centuries, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1991
no. 39. p. 88
ill. on p. 89

Opperman, Hal N., Jean-Baptiste Oudry, New York and London 1977
no. D941

Drawings from the Witt Collection at the Courtauld Institute of Art, St James's Square, London, York City Art Gallery and Peterborough Art Gallery, 1953
cat. no. 80

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: unable to check due to support.

Inscription: Support (historic), Verso: centre, graphite, underlined, erased: “Special”; lower right, graphite: “Hondecoet”; lower left corner, graphite, Witt number: “2456”.

Collector's mark: Support (historic), Verso: lower right corner, stamped in black ink: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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