Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter (1604 - 1653). Gijsbert de Hondecoeter or d'Hondecoeter was a Dutch painter. He was the son of Gillis Claesz. de Hondecoeter and sire of the successful Melchior de Hondecoeter. Gijsbert de Hondecoeter grew up in Amsterdam. After he was rejected as a marriage candidate by Anna Spierinx he moved to Utrecht. His father, who married the much younger Anna Spierinx in 1628, had worked in that city for a number of years and became acquainted with the Mannerist direction that the Utrecht painters took around 1590. In 1627 he became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht, just like his cousin Gillis from Delft. In 1631 he married Maria Hulstman. He worked with his brother-in-law Jan Baptist Weenix when he returned from Rome in 1647. Gijsbert de Hondecoeter painted landscapes, often decorated with animals. His early works in particular are strongly influenced by the Flemish landscape tradition. From around 1630 he started working strongly tonalistically, as Jan van Goyen did at that time. The works of Adam Elsheimer, through the Utrecht engraver Hendrick Goudt, have also influenced his work.