Alexandre-François Desportes
, French, 1661-1743
Title
Still life with Dead GameDate1707
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
91 x 73 cm
Signedlower right: F. Desportes 1707
Credit LinePresented, Sir Hugh Lane, 1914
Object numberNGI.671
Exhibition HistoryCentenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964From Titian to Delacroix: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, Yokohama Sogo Museum of Art, 25 August 1993 - 17 October 1993; Chiba Sogo Museum of Art, 10 November 1993 - 20 December 1993; Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, 5 January 1994 - 20 February 1994; Kobe City Museum, 25 February 1994 - 10 April 1994; Isetan Museum of Art, 14 April 1994 - 24 May 1994
European Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery, Canberra, 25 June 1994 - 3 October 1994; Art Gallery of New South Wales, 21 October 1994 - 15 January 1995
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, 22 March - 6 September 2015; Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextThis still life, by French artist Desportes, is of a type known as a gamepiece. It is one of a pair owned by the Gallery. Desportes specialised in paintings of animals – both still lifes and portraits – as well as in hunting scenes. In this painting, a dead mallard, a red-legged partridge, and a hare hang from a hook beside an arrangement of fruit. Desportes, following the Flemish realist tradition of painting, depicts the elements of the still life in exquisite detail, accurately capturing the range of textures on display. Wealthy patrons commissioned such trophy paintings to convey messages of privilege and status.