Jean-Baptiste Oudry studied at the Académie de Saint-Luc (Paris), an institution then directed by his father, Jacques, a painter and art dealer. In 1708 he graduated from the academy, one year before his marriage, and in 1714 he worked as an assistant, becoming a teacher in 1717. In 1719 he entered the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, although he did not start giving classes until 1743. He enjoyed the patronage of the Marquess of Béringhen, master of the royal stables, and through his influence Oudry was named official painter of the royal hunts—Louis XV was a passionate hunter—with a workshop at the Tuileries and a room in the Louvre. Thanks to Louis Fagon, Councillor of Finance, in 1734 he was given the task of reopening the tapestry workshops at Beauvais, then in a ruinous state, and his success earned him the title of inspector of the Gobelins Manufactory in 1736, where he provided numerous designs also used on upholstery. In addition to commissions from the royal family—The Four Seasons in 1749 for the Dauphine's cabinet at Versailles—Oudry also worked extensively for the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (the Museum Schwerin holds 34 paintings and 33 drawings). He left over a hundred designs upon his death, which were engraved and used to illustrate La Fontaine's Fables.

Oudry started out by dabbling in portraiture under the guidance of Nicolas de Largilliere—for instance, his portraits of the Count and Countess of Castelblanco (ca. 1716, Museo del Prado)—but his speciality was hunting scenes and animals. He drew his models from life, a large number of which have been preserved, and was influenced by Melchior de Hondecoeter and Jan Weenix.

We find this characteristic hunting theme in the pair in the Banco Santander Collection. However, these are very early works with an abundance of elements not seen in his most frequent compositions, which in most cases featured only animals, usually dead game. This pair shows hunting gear and weapons, two dogs lying on the ground and dead fowl in the foreground. But they also contain flowers in large vases, surprisingly situated in what looks like a wild natural setting. We are given to understand that this is actually a kind of garden, with sculpted monuments suggestive of fountains: various putti on the left and a reclining satyr on the far opposite side in one of the canvases, and in the other a figure, probably a nymph, in the centre of an elevated platform. In each piece, in the distance, a structure serves as the backdrop to the garden.

Animals, flowers and weapons are all realistically painted, but the overall effect is one of whimsical, luxuriant ornament, a highly contrived vision representative of the courtly circles in which the painter moved. [José Manuel Cruz Valdovinos]