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A frog, crouched in the foreground and glittering like a jewel, appears to be causing a stir. The male birds looking down at it seem angry or excited by its presence: they prowl, flutter their wings or glare, feathers ruffled. On a top branch is a chaffinch, fluffing out its plumage; its mate sits below, next to a tree sparrow. The bird closest to the frog, and about to attack, is probably a brambling, a kind of finch. There was great interest in the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Holland. Many collectors prized pictures like this for their accuracy, displaying them alongside scientific instruments and specimens including stuffed birds and animals. Melchior d'Hondecoeter may well have drawn and sketched his creatures from such a collection; he may even have had one himself.
Title
Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi
Date
1668
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 68.3 x W 56.8 cm
Accession number
NG1222
Acquisition method
Presented by J. Whitworth Shaw, 1886
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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