(b Utrecht, 1636; d Amsterdam, April 3, 1695). Dutch painter, grandson of Gillis de Hondecoutre. His first teacher was his father Gijsbert Gillisz. de Hondecoutre, after whose death Melchior was taught by his uncle Weenix family, §1. Melchior apparently became an assistant in his uncle’s studio, and his earliest signed and dated work Dog Defending Dead Game against a Bird of Prey (1658; Le Havre, Mus. B.-A.) is in the style of Weenix. Hondecoeter is mentioned as active in Pictura, The Hague painters’ confraternity in 1659–63; his presentation piece was originally a seascape, which he withdrew and replaced with an animal painting. If the signature is correct on a painting dated 1661, Still-life with Fish Pail (Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Mus.), he also experimented with a style and subject most closely associated with Abraham van Beyeren. While at The Hague he had a student, Willem Frederik van Royen (1645–1723), who became painter to the court at Potsdam....