The Menagerie of Pieter Boel

Painter and draftsman of animals for Louis XIV, Pieter Boel (1626-1674) is now widely recognised as one of the best animal painters of the past. This large-size book presents 40 paintings and drawings of this extraordinary observer of nature. His pieces were particularly lively because he was inspired by the living birds and mammals he was able to observe in the Versailles Menagerie, established by Louis XIV in 1664 and soon a model for all the European courts. The studies were used as models for animals reproduced in the foreground of the famous Gobelins tapestries, which decorated several royal mansions. They are replete with details of the animals, seen from different viewpoints, and are admired for the quasi-tactile rendering of fur or feathers. The drawings included show Boel’s keen eye for rendering movement.