Alexandre-François Desportes

French, 1661 - 1743

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French painter (1661–1743)

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This vertical still life painting shows a display of dead pheasants, slabs of meat and ribs, and fruit, all arranged on a tabletop close to us. Five golden pears sit on a wooden stool in front of the table, to the left of center. More than a dozen pheasants are arranged belly up on a gold platter with pedestal foot on the table to our left. Their plucked bodies are covered with a layer of white, textured lard while the feathers on their heads and neck are left intact. Two of the three fully plucked birds stacked on a tousled white tablecloth to our right are wrapped in what looks like paper at first glance but turns out to be thin slices of meat, and tied with twine. A woven wicker basket with at least eight oranges rests on the opening of a tall copper cooking pot to our right, behind the plucked birds. A rack of ribs and slab of meat with some entrails hang from hooks in a horizontal rail that is cropped by the top edge of the painting. The palette is dominated with warm browns, ochre, and white, with touches of green, orange, and blue.
Alexandre-François Desportes, Still Life with Dressed Game, Meat, and Fruit, 1734, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 2012.11.1

Still Life with Dressed Game, Meat, and Fruit

Alexandre-François Desportes · 1734 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2012.11.1