Artwork Page for A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

Details / Information for A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

1742

Jean-Baptiste Oudry

(French, 1686–1755)
Culture
France, 18th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 118 x 92.5 x 6 cm (46 7/16 x 36 7/16 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 98.2 x 73.5 cm (38 11/16 x 28 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1969.53
Public Domain
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Location
216B French and German
Print
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Did You Know?

This lavish display of game was painted one year after a devastating famine gripped France.

Description

Oudry used a starkly simple composition and sterile background to emphasize his virtuosity in depicting textures, a highly desirable skill of still-life painters at this time. These artists were aiming for the highest level of accuracy—an effect of the Enlightenment, the contemporary intellectual movement that emphasized scientific reasoning in all pursuits. These paintings were generally displayed in hunting lodges or dining rooms, as a glorification of the hunt and the bounty it brings.
A vertically oriented oil painting is composed of smooth, meticulous layers of muted tan and brown paint, save for the vivid reds of raw meat. To our left, a leg of lamb hangs, revealing white fat and red muscle. Center right, a dead brown hare dangles by its hind feet, its head tilted downward with a drop of blood at its nose. Soft light from our upper left illuminates the textures of fur and flesh.

A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

1742

Jean-Baptiste Oudry

(French, 1686–1755)
France, 18th century

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