Twee honden bij jachtstilleven met hert, zwaan, vos en everzwijn

Held at the Bavarian State Painting Collections, this canvas with two dogs beside a hunting still life of deer, swan, fox, and wild boar is among Boel's most comprehensive single-canvas surveys of hunt quarry — four substantial animal species plus two live hounds, each requiring individual study and characterisation. The combination of deer, swan, fox, and boar spans game of very different hunting traditions: deer and boar for par-force hunting, swan as prestigious royal game, fox for coursing — a social and sporting encyclopedia within a single composition. Bavaria's electoral court maintained extensive hunting establishments, and the acquisition of works like this by the Wittelsbach collections reflects the genre's perfect alignment with aristocratic hunting culture.

A composition of this species density requires systematic organisation to prevent visual chaos. Boel distributes the quarry animals at different heights and distances, using the two dogs as active compositional anchors whose alert postures draw the eye through the arrangement. Each animal's distinctive texture — deer coat, swan plumage, fox fur, boar bristle — is rendered with species-specific brushwork.