Last December, the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) in Copenhagen announced the acquisition of a still life by Clara Peeters. The panel was bought in September at an auction in Zurich. Painted around 1615, this is now the earliest dated painting by a woman artist in the Danish national gallery.
Clara Peeters (1588-1621), Still Life with a Peregrine Falcon and Birds, ca. 1615
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
The painting depicts a young peregrine falcon standing triumphant on the breast of a grey partridge. A collection of twelve other birds, arranged on the table and in a basket, further underscores the falcon’s predatory prowess.
It is speculated that the subject of this painting is related to a historic event in 1613. The archdukes Isabel Clara Eugenia (1566–1633) and Albert of Austria (1559–1621), who ruled Flanders at that time, adopted a law requiring noble men and women to hunt “fur with fur and feather with feather”. This means that dogs were used to hunt mammals, whereas birds such as falcons were domesticated to capture other birds.
The painting is currently on display in the permanent collection of the SMK.