Jan Baptiste Weenix
Amsterdam 1621 – Amsterdam 1660/61

A Boar Hound with a Joint Of Meat Near an Enraged Cat
signed upper right Gio Batta Weenix

oil on canvas

45"×51" (114.5 cm×129.5 cm)

PROVENANCE:
PROVENANCE P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd., London Private Collection, New York

NOTE: Jan Baptist Weenix was born in Amsterdam in 1621, the son of the architect Johannes Weenix and Grietgen Heeremans. His sister Lijsbeth married the painter Barent Micker (1615 - 1687), whose brother Jan Micker (1598/99 - 1664) was Weenix’s first teacher. He subsequently studied with the Utrecht painter Abraham Bloemaert and completed his training in the Amsterdam studio of Claes Moeyaert. In 1639, Weenix married Josina de Hondecourte, daughter of the landscape painter Gijsbert de Hondecourte (1604 - 1653). On October 30, 1642, he drafted his will as he was planning to travel to Italy to experiment with his art. He lived in Italy from 1643 to 1647. In Rome, Weenix joined the Netherlandish artists’ society, the Bentvueghels. About 1645 the artist probably entered the service of Cardinal Camillo Pamphili. Weenix was in Amsterdam by June 1647, however by 1649 he had settled in Utrecht where, together with Jan Both, he was elected an officer of the local painters’ guild. In 1657, Weenix moved to the Huis ter Mey, where he died in 1660 or 1661, at the age of thirty-nine. Weenix had two sons, one of whom, Jan, became a well known still-life painter.

Along with Claes Berchem and Jan Both, Weenix was a leader of the second generation of seventeenth century Dutch painters. He painted and drew history subjects, views of Mediterranean seaports, landscapes, genre scenes, still-lifes with dead game and some portraits, although these are quite rare. After his return from Italy he always signed his name, as in the present painting, Gio[vanni] Batt[ist]a Weenix, whereas earlier he had written it J[ohannes] Weenicx or Weenincks. The addition of Battista might have been a reference to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili, who became Pope Innocent X in 1644, from whom he received at least one commission.

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