Chinese Sailboats in a Bay, with Waterfowl Feeding, Pieter Schenk (II), c. 1715 - c. 1725
etching, h 163mm × w 254mm More details
A well-trained pelican regurgitates fish at the feet of an Indian fisherman. Jan van der Straet’s hunting scenes, such as the one hanging nearby, from nearly a century earlier were used as compositional models by the younger Schenk when recreating a ‘Chinese’ composition. To translate the European model into a chinoiserie print, he emphasized the linearity and eschewed shading to flatten the perspective.
