Rooster and Hen

By 1807 the pair of signed and dated paintings Rooster and Hen (inv. n. O 10464) and Turkeycock (inv. n. O 10465) already formed part of the Thun art collection. The paintings were created at a time when Tamm was active as a court painter in Vienna. These works marked a shift towards the depiction of domestic animals, notably poultry. The paintings are imbued with deep colour tones reflecting the falling light. Tamm thus perfectly differentiated between the quality of plumage of the individual birds and the hair texture of the guinea pig. In his animal compositions, the artist was influenced by David de Koninck, whose art production he had acquainted himself during his professional career in Rome (1685-1695).