The Floating Feather

The floating spring ( Dutch: Het Drijvend veertje ) is the name used mainly an oil painting by the Dutch painter Melchior de Hondecoeter that bears actually the title of a pelican and other birds on a pond ( Een pelikaan s other gevogelte bij een water basin ). A small detail, a feather floating on the pond, supplanted the official name of the image.

The painting was painted in 1680, probably for the hunting lodge of the Stadtholder William III. of Orange- Nassau, which is now the Royal Palace in Soestdijk, or for the Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn.

The painting shows a variety of birds, simple and exotic, and on a pond. Hondecoeter was known for his bird studies and especially for the realistic representation of his subjects. Although he experimented early in his career with various styles, he favored after 1660 compositions similar to that shown in the picture The floating spring: carefully observed motifs, which he found on farms, in courtly menageries and landscape parks. Complex landscapes or architectural elements enlivened the backgrounds of scenes. His paintings were admired by the regents and merchants of Amsterdam, and of William III. , Who had three of his works, appreciated. Hondecoetor large paintings were well suited to the features of the large country estates and corresponded to the taste of the time.

Hondecoetor had its own pheasant, but he also visited the country houses of his clients and supporters, where he could study other exotic animals. He is said to have owned a rooster, who stood quietly on command, so that he could paint it without interruption. On the various types are shown next to the Pelican of wild birds and domestic ducks, including the musk duck Ruddy Shelduck, the grebes, the Red-breasted Goose and the Widgeon; On the shore of the pond in the background large birds are shown from different continents: a cassowary, a South African crowned crane and flamingos.

Hondecoeter painted another very similar picture, A Pelican and other exotic birds in a park, on which some elements are the same: the birds on the water, the group of exotic birds, the pelican, and, remarkably, the floating spring; some are similar: the landscape and the Muscovy duck, which is fully visible; other elements are completely different: in this picture sits a Moluccan Cockatoo in a tree next to the pond and on the shore of the pond in the background other birds have been inserted. The exact date of this image is unknown; probably it was 1655-1660.