A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

1742

A Hare and a Leg of Lamb, 1742. Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686–1755). Oil on canvas; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1969.53 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.