Etalage de gibier mort

At the foot of a tree a hare hangs by its hind legs from a cord tied to a branch, surrounded by the spoil of the hunt: small birds with bright plumage piled on the ground and a heron laid out on a red cloth above them, its body contorted, its wings open and its legs stiff. The display of dead game was a specialty of the Dutch still-life tradition, and Jan-Baptist Weenix — trained in Utrecht and Amsterdam, later court painter at Düsseldorf — was among its most celebrated masters, prized for rich colour and the soft, warm light of the open air. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.