Fruit and a Dead Jay | Narodna galerija

A dead jay, hanging from a grapevine by its beak and resting on a plot of earth overgrown with wild plants, is seen against a background composed of various types of fruit.

We know nothing about the artist who signed this unusual picture. The quality of the painting is not above average, but we cannot fail to appreciate the careful calculation of the composition. The painter was probably familiar with the Flemish school, but the precision with which he depicted the jay reveals an effort at accuracy which may be connected with drawing studies for prints devoted to the animal world.

Artist Antonius Angermeyer

Year of creation 1712

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 62 x 47 cm

Inventory number NG S 832, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Restored: 1957, ZSV, Ljubljana.
Provenance: ? LBG, Graz, ? No. 145, until 1903 ?; the Narodna galerija received the painting from the spa at Dobrna in 1932 (see the record of the inventory of paintings at the spas in Dobrna and Rogaška Slatina dated 28–30 Dec. 1931. Entered as “Dutch manner, 17C”. A search in the old inventory book of the Joanneum in Graz in 1987 did not reveal this canvas). The old inventory number of the Narodna galerija was 454.
Exhibitions: 1960, Ljubljana, No. 68; 1989, Ljubljana, No. 50.
Lit.: Cevc 1960, p. 32, Cat. No. 68, Fig. 40; Zeri and Rozman 1989, pp. 144–145, Cat. and Fig. No. 50.