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The Pâté
1743
Artwork Viewer
Jean-Baptiste Oudry made his name as a specialist in animals, hunting scenes, and still lifes of dead game. This picture is perhaps his finest in America. Strung up in a stone niche, a dead pheasant and hare dangle—wings outstretched, nose dripping blood. Below appears a pastry-covered pâté, beside fruit, wine, a dead partridge and mallard, and a pair of leggy, pale-green stalks: not celery, but cardoons, then common in French cuisine. The French term for still life is nature morte, literally “dead nature.” From undeniably lifeless objects, Oudry here conjured an arresting, eerily lifelike scene.
- Artist
- Jean-Baptiste Oudry
- Title
- The Pâté
- Date
- 1743
- Object Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 69 3/4 x 49 in. (177.2 x 124.5 cm)
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase, Mildred Anna Williams Collection
- Accession Number
- 1956.91