Wildfowl

Wildfowl, held at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, represents a focused study of wild birds — ducks, geese, waders, or similar species — in a composition that may be a hunt context, a larder scene, or a pure naturalistic study. Snyders's knowledge of wildfowl was encyclopaedic, acquired through decades of painting in Flanders where waterbird hunting was common and the marshes and estuaries of the Low Countries provided extraordinary variety of species. The Brighton Museum's holding of Flemish Baroque work is modest, and this Snyders provides an important European Old Master presence in the collection. Wildfowl subjects could be presented as pure still life of dead birds or as live-action hunting scenes; the undated work's precise format is uncertain, but Snyders's handling of different waterbird textures — the smooth breast of a mallard, the rough neck of a goose, the iridescent speculum wing patches — was unmatched among contemporary painters.

Wildfowl plumage presents a specific challenge: the waterproofed, compact feathers of ducks and similar birds have a different visual quality from the looser plumage of game birds like pheasant. The characteristic speculum — the iridescent wing patch found in many ducks — requires layered glazes of blue, green, and purple over a dark ground to achieve the colour-shifting effect. The birds' bills, feet, and legs are painted with different handling from the feathers.