Brief Biography-Melchior d’Hondecoeter, born in Utrecht, was the great-grandson of Nicolaes de Hondecoutre, a painter in Antwerp, the grandson of Gillis d’Hondecoeter, a painter of animals and landscapes, the son of Gijsbert, a painter of fowl, in Amsterdam and a nephew of Jan Baptist Weenix. Melchior was a disciple of his father, Gijsbert, and on his death, he studied under Weenix. In 1659 he became part of the Picture Society of the Hague before marrying and settling in Amsterdam, where he died in 1695. Melchior was famous for his fowl with exotic plumage and was the most successful painter of the family. He also painted marine subjects. Jan van Huysum, and Jan Weenix, his cousin, were two of his many notable students.