Pieter Casteels 1684 – 1749

An assemblage of farmyard fowl and other birds

Oil painting on canvas 29 x 24 inches in its fine original and carved wood frame

Provenance: Viscountess Templetown, Castle Upton, County Antrim

Pieter Casteels was born in Antwerp on 3 October 1684. He was the pupil of his father, also Pieter, and from him learned the elements of still-life painting which were his hallmark. He was the brother-in-law of the sporting painter Pieter Tillemans, whom he accompanied to London. He had a ready and success, and by 1711 was the Director of the new Kneller Academy in London. Apart from a brief return to Antwerp in 1713, he passed the rest of his career in London, where he painted numerous still-lives of flowers, birds and animals. After 1735, he retired from painting pictures, and concentrated on producing designs for a calico manufactory. He died in Richmond in 1749.