Artwork
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare is an oil painting by the Academic Art artist Gustave Courbet. It dates from 1857 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Gustave Courbet's 1857 oil painting, Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, depicts a scene from the forest centered on the theme of hunting.
Gustave Courbet's 1857 oil painting, Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, depicts a scene from the forest centered on the theme of hunting. The composition features hunting dogs gathered around a dead hare, set against a backdrop of trees. While the work is classified within the academic art movement, its subject matter focuses on a realistic portrayal of the immediate aftermath of a hunt rather than an idealized narrative.
The imagery presents the raw elements of the forest environment, including the animals and the vegetation, to document the natural world and the act of hunting itself.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1857, this work by Gustave Courbet is an oil painting on canvas. The piece measures 92.7 cm in height and 148.6 cm in width. Stylistically, the composition is associated with the academic art movement.
The imagery depicts a forest setting featuring trees, hunting dogs, and a dead hare, reflecting the artist's engagement with naturalistic subjects within a traditional framework. The application of oil paint on a woven canvas support represents the standard materials for large-scale figurative works of this period.
History & Provenance
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare is an oil-on-canvas painting completed by Gustave Courbet in 1857, measuring approximately 92.7 cm high and 148.6 cm wide. The work, which depicts a forest scene with hunting dogs and a dead hare, is recorded in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, where it remains today. Earlier ownership or commission details are not documented in the sources, so the known provenance traces from its creation in 1857 to its present institutional holding.
Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare, an 1857 oil-on-canvas work by Gustave Courbet, is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is part of the museum's collection. According to the Wikidata record, the painting's location is given as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The sources do not specify an individual accession number, nor do they document any exhibition history or prior provenance for the work.
Overview
Gustave Courbet's 'Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare' (1857) is a quintessential example of his Realist approach to animal subjects, executed in oil on canvas. The composition centers on three hounds in a dense, shadowed woodland setting, arranged with a naturalistic informality that rejects idealized academic conventions. Two dogs stand alert, their white and brown coats rendered with thick, textured brushstrokes that emphasize the physical reality of their fur and musculature.
The third dog lies prone in the foreground, gripping a dead hare in its jaws, a detail that anchors the scene in the immediate aftermath of the hunt. Courbet employs a dark, earthy palette dominated by browns and greens, creating a somber atmosphere that highlights the raw, unromanticized nature of the subject. Painted during the height of his Realist period, following his controversial 'A Burial at Ornans' and preceding his 'The Stone Breakers', this work demonstrates the artist's commitment to depicting the tangible world without allegorical embellishment.
It reflects his broader interest in rural life and the physical presence of objects, treating the hunting scene not as a noble pursuit but as a factual observation of nature and labor.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (UK: KOOR-bay; US: koor-BAY; French:; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting.
