Penn's England (Pennsylvania State University Museum of Art, 1982-09-05 - )
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 266-267, N590.2 A83 (YCBA)Judy Egerton, British Sporting and Animal Paintings 1655-1867 : A Catalogue : The Paul Mellon Collection, , Tate Publishing, London, 1978, p. 5, no. 5, pl. 3, ND1383 G7 B75 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Jan Wyck, a Dutch painter working in England, was famous for his battle and hunting scenes. In Wyck’s time, heron hawking was already an ancient aristocratic ritual, verging on the symbolic: a noble and brave bird of prey was set upon the heron, a waterfowl traditionally associated with cowardliness. Here, in the foreground, a huntsman carries a hawk on his arm toward the hunting party, which includes a gentleman and lady on horseback, and their hounds, which gaze anxiously up at the sky where the battle is waged. The heron, flying upwards, is about to be met by the descent of the soaring hawk. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016