Still Life with a Hare and a black Rooster; Stilleven met haas en zwarte haan

In this still life, the artist presents a somber arrangement of game and harvest, set against a deep, shadowy backdrop that pushes the subjects toward the viewer. Here we see the aftermath of a hunt, where the once-living creatures – a hare and a dark rooster – now lie motionless, stripped of their vitality and transformed into objects of study and consumption.

The composition is anchored by a diagonal line created by a weathered wooden staff or branch, which cuts through the center of the frame. Draped over this element is the limp body of a hare. The artist has rendered the texture of its fur with remarkable precision, capturing the transition from soft, brownish down to the visceral, wet appearance of exposed flesh near its midsection. This detail introduces a raw, physical reality to the scene, grounding the work in a sense of mortality.

To the left, a large, dark rooster rests heavily upon a blue cloth. Its plumage is rendered in deep, almost obsidian tones, with subtle highlights that suggest the iridescent sheen of real feathers. The bird’s anatomy appears weighted and slumped, mirroring the stillness of the hare. In the lower foreground, the composition finds balance through the inclusion of leafy vegetables, likely cabbage or endive. These elements provide a textural contrast to the animal subjects; their pale, ruffled leaves catch the light, offering a bright, crisp counterpoint to the dark, heavy forms above them.

Beyond the immediate physical descriptions, there are profound subtexts at play within this arrangement. The painting functions as a memento mori – a reflection on the inevitability of death. By placing the harvested animals alongside plucked vegetables and inanimate objects like the wooden stool, the artist collapses the distinction between the animate and the inanimate. Everything presented is in a state of decay or transition toward consumption.

Furthermore, there is a tension between the abundance of the harvest and the violence of the kill. The blue cloth, often associated with nobility or even divinity in classical art, serves as a theatrical stage for this display of death. Through this juxtaposition, the artist invites a meditation on the cycle of life: the beauty of nature’s textures is inextricably linked to the predatory struggle for survival and the ultimate stillness of death.