Frans Snyders

The animal and still life painter, Frans Snyders, was apprenticed to Pieter Brueghel the Younger in 1593 but in his artistic development he was influenced to a much greater extent by Brueghel’s younger brother Jan. Snyders was made a master in 1602, after which he travelled to Italy, returning to his native city of Antwerp for good in the summer of 1609. The freer, independent, style he acquired was due largely to the influence of Pieter Paul Rubens, who taught him to paint animals, fruits and flowers in his pictures and subsequently employed him in his studio. 

The impetuosity demonstrated in the study sheet on offer here is characteristic of Snyder’s draughtsmanship. The artist must have produced countless finger exercises of this kind. Using rapid and accurate strokes of the brush he has portrayed the
animals in different poses with supreme confidence and apparently effortless ease. They race and frolic over the sheet like a veritable whirlwind. A nice touch of humour is provided by a magnificent cock strutting on the back of a dog eating. There
are faint outlines of other animal studies in pencil on the verso. A study sheet very similar in style was sold at Sotheby’s in New York on 30 January 2013 (lot 297).