‘The Duck Sijctghen’

In the still life gallery at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England sits an unassuming painting of a duck, an oil-on-work work by Dutch artist Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691). It is the portrait of Sijctghen the Duck, one of the most beloved animals of the 17th century.

Sijctghen laid more than a hundred eggs each year and was much treasured by her owners. They loved her so much that, in 1647, when she was 20 years old, they commissioned Cuyp to paint her portrait. The finished work contained a Dutch poem, written as if Sijctghen herself was speaking.

Her owners were saddened when she died in 1650 and added a short passage mourning her passing in the painting. Sijctghen was thus immortalized in a painting and two poems created just for her, an extraordinary honor for a duck.

Belonging to a private collection, the painting has been exhibited at the Dordrechts Museum in the Netherlands for some time, then at the National Gallery in London, and loaned to the Ashmolean and has been on exhibit there since 2018.