Jean-Baptiste Oudry, White Duck, 1800s, Oil on Canvas, Framed

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Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Paris, France, 1686 - Beauvais, France, 1755)
Title: White duck
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 98 … Read more Jean-Baptiste Oudry (Paris, France, 1686 - Beauvais, France, 1755)
Title: White duck
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: without frame 98 × 73 cm – with frame 109.5 x 84.3 x 6 cm
Not signed

Expertise by Giancarlo Sestieri, art historian

Publications: from Sacro to Profano, the Giorgio Baratti art collection from Milan, exhibition catalogue curated by Daiva Mitrulevičiūtė, Giovanni Matteo Guidetti and Ileana Maniscalco, (16 February – 27 September 2020), Vilnius, National Museum - Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, pp. 674-677

In this superb painting we see a White duck hanging from a string attached to one foot from the ceiling – it hangs slightly away from the wall in the background – illuminated by a direct but gentle light falling from left to right, whose source is imagined as being outside the space of the bare room that contains the image. The work appears to be of exceptionally high quality, for its harmonious combination of a refined mimetic technique and a delicate pictorial sensibility. So, we can say that it is a masterpiece by a specialist in the sector, or perhaps by an artist who also worked in other genres, presumably portraiture, since this Duck is a genuine ‘personage’, in particular in the rendering of the wings. The high quality of the paiting is evident also in the sensitivity with which the painter has portrayed the animal. The Duck is attributed to the famous animalier Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755), a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. There are close affinities with our canvas in several of his paintings also centred on ducks, but especially on other birds such as the swan or the partridge, with their wings stretched out. See less