Name of Object:

Still life with Fruits, Parrots and a White Cockatoo

Also known as:

Still life with birds (fruits and parrots)

Location:

Budapest, Közép-Magyarország / Central Hungary, Hungary

Holding Museum:

Hungarian National Gallery

 About Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest

Date of Object:

1710s

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Jakab Bogdány (c. 1660, Eperjes (Prešov)-1724, London)

Museum Inventory Number:

3681

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

H: 98 cm; w: 128.5 cm

Type of object:

Painting (still life)

Place of production:

England

Description:

Jakab Bogdány left his native town, Eperjes (Prešov) in Upper Hungary, at a young age, going first to Vienna and then to Amsterdam where sources mention him in 1684, and where he may have pursued his studies. At any rate, Amsterdam, then the centre of middle-class genres, especially still life, was a perfect school for an artist just starting out. At first he painted flower and fruit pieces, which proved to be a lifelong experience for him, for the effect of the Dutch example remained discernible in this group of works throughout his life. Bogdány moved to London in 1688, and his technical expertise soon earned him fame among the English aristocracy. His most important clients were the royal family themselves. As a sign of both his artistic and social recognition, he gained English citizenship in 1700 and purchased an estate near London. He began to paint animal compositions, mainly exotic birds, designed for above doors or mantelpieces; most of these pictures are still in situ, found in their original settings in private collections in rural England. Influenced by the painter, Melchior de Hondecoeter, an outstanding Dutch master of bird paintings, Bogdány's are actually elegant genre pictures with exotic birds as actors against a background of elegant parks and classical buildings. He studied, and from the point of view of ornithology, accurately depicted, rare and colourful birds in the aviary at Windsor Park, which belonged to one of his main clients, Admiral George Churchill.

Jakab Bogdány, born in Eperjes (Prešov), completed his studies in the Netherlands and became famous in England, becoming extremely popular with the English aristocracy. He was a master of the artistic form he practiced – still life paintings with birds – and worked for the royal family. The Hungarian state repurchased his splendid still life paintings with birds in the early 20th century.

How date and origin were established:

The painting is signed and the date defined by stylistic analysis.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased from an English private collection in 1907; in the Museum of Fine Arts until 1974 and then transferred to the Hungarian National Gallery.

Selected bibliography:

Pigler, A., Bogdány Jakab (1660–1724), Budapest, 1941.
The Hungarian National Gallery: The Old Collection, (ed. M. Mojzer), Budapest, 1984, p. 138.
Rajnai, M., Jacob Bogdani c. 1660–1724, exhibition catalogue, London, 1989, p. 7.

Citation of this web page:

Enikő  Buzási "Still life with Fruits, Parrots and a White Cockatoo" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;hu;Mus11;3;en

Prepared by: Enikő Buzási
Copyedited by: Terézia BardiTerézia Bardi

SURNAME: Bardi
NAME: Terézia Anna

AFFILIATION: National Trust of Monuments for Hungary

TITLE: Art Historian, Vice Director for Research at The National Trust of
Monuments for Hungary; MWNF DBA local co-ordinator (Hungary), author
and copy-editor

CV:
Terézia Bardi, Vice Director for Research at the National Trust of Monuments for Hungary since 2004, was awarded her MA in History and History of Art at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. After a period of fellowships mainly in Italy, Terézia gained her PhD from the Faculty of Art History at the same university for her thesis Presentation and Representation – the European Reception of the Liberation of Buda in 1686: Feast and Public Opinion. Her main fields of research are 17th-and18th-century Baroque and Rococo: the spectacles, festival decorations and associated iconography – including theatre productions of the period – and interior decoration of historic houses. Since 1988, she has edited a number of art historical books that include some on Oriental art and architecture. She is MWNF DBA’s local (Hungarian) co-ordinator, author and copy-editor.
Translation by: Judit Pokoly
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: HU 03