A Hen on the Nest

Govert Dircksz Camphuysen (1624-1672)

Ca 1645–1640. Oil on wood

Although the Dutch artist Govert Camphuysen studied portrait painting in Amsterdam, he soon specialised in a genre which was extremely popular at the time: rural landscapes and barn interiors. As the Netherlands was among the most urbanised regions of Europe in the 17th century, pictures of country life expressed the population’s yearning for a simple and natural life, but were also meant to incite patriotic pride: besides overseas trade, flourishing agriculture was the main source of wealth of the Netherlands. “Portraits” of domestic animals and birds are also categorised as barn interiors.

The painting “A Hen on the Nest” bears Camphuysen’s signature: it is on the end of the log, but was later repainted and replaced with the name of the Dutch landscape painter Albert Cuyp. It is difficult to say after so many years whether the new signature was meant to increase the market value of the painting, or whether the signature had become too dark and illegible and was therefore misinterpreted when the painting was restored.