Pieter Casteels III belonged to a family of artists: his father, Pieter Casteels, and his brother, Frans Casteels, were also painters. Although a native of Antwerp, Casteels moved to England with his brother-in-law, Pieter Tillemans, in 1708, and in 1711 he became the Director of Sir Godfrey Kneller’s Academy. Besides a brief return to Antwerp in 1713, Casteels spent much of his life working in England, where he specialized in painting flower still lifes as well as farmyard scenes with animals for the English aristocracy’s country houses. Often conceived as part of an interior to be used as overdoors or chimney pieces, these paintings commanded a great clientele, and their decorative function dictated their proportions and low viewpoints.
This magnificent and beautifully preserved work by Casteels certainly would have been part of an important commission given the size of the canvas and grandeur of the birds featured. Though many beautiful and exotic birds are featured, the composition is dominated by a male peacock whose magnificent tail cascades diagonally down into the foreground.