Dog Guarding Dead Game
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
25 1/2 x 31 3/4 in. (64.8 x 80.6 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, 1871
Accession Number
71.89
Tags
Art Historical Context
Jean-Baptiste Oudry's *Dog Guarding Dead Game* (1753) is a captivating oil-on-canvas still life that showcases the artist's mastery of animal depiction during the French Rococo era Measuring 25½ × 31¾ inches, the painting features a vigilant dog standing protectively over a bounty of hunted game—birds, foxes, and other creatures—rendered with astonishing realism. Oudry, a leading 18th-century painter renowned for his animal subjects, draws viewers into a moment of quiet tension, where the glossy fur, rumpled feathers, and subtle play of light evoke the textures of life and death. Created amid...
About the Artist
Jean-Baptiste Oudry · 1686–1755
Comment on works: Fish; Game; Dogs; Hunt scenes