Still Life with Dead Game and Peaches in a Landscape 1727

Curator: Before us, we have Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s "Still Life with Dead Game and Peaches in a Landscape," painted in 1727. The artwork currently resides at the Birmingham Museum of Art. Editor: The arrangement immediately strikes me as quite unsettling. The limp bodies of the hare and birds, coupled with those overly ripe peaches, gives an air of both abundance and morbid decay. Curator: Oudry’s remarkable skill here highlights the economic and social context. Note the luxuriousness of the still life tradition. This painting serves as a kind of display of wealth, depicting game acquired only through privilege. He clearly intended this painting to flaunt access to high quality food! Editor: Exactly! We must consider the role of hunting in aristocratic culture at the time. It's tied to masculine power, the control over the natural world, and the justification of social hierarchies through violence and domination. I notice the birds hanging so deliberately. What are your thoughts on this stylistic and thematic choice, and its message of privilege in plain sight? Curator: The birds hanging next to the dead hare underscores precisely what I'm pointing out. It suggests the artist has studied taxidermy—note his perfect grasp on the material effects of light on the feathers! Beyond just showing access to animals, there is also something to be said about the relationship between artistic skill and craftsmanship that elevated artists in that social strata. Editor: Yes, the level of craftsmanship almost neutralizes some of the violence in plain sight; almost rendering the reality acceptable, at least to Oudry's intended aristocratic male audiences. Let's look at the peaches here, a stark contrast between the game that symbolizes wealth versus seasonal or fleeting luxuries. I believe Oudry highlights this in his choice to display some slightly overripe. What statement do you feel he's making through that decision? Curator: That's a keen observation. Given how methodically he likely selected the game, positioning overripe peaches, to me, is Oudry emphasizing that even luxury is temporary and subject to the materials available in a region or climate. Editor: Considering this piece today makes me think about how differently we now interact with similar representations of wealth and nature, or lack thereof for some, and consider access as a marker for our relationship to societal control, in tandem with the history and craft itself. Curator: Indeed, a painting like this invites reflection on what persists, and what has evolved materially, over these centuries, regarding access to essential things.