A Hare and a Leg of Lamb

A Hare and a Leg of Lamb (French: Un lièvre et un gigot de mouton) is a 1742 painting by French Rococo painter and engraver Jean-Baptiste Oudry.^[2][3]

Un lièvre et un gigot de mouton (A Hare and a Leg of Lamb)
Artist	Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Year	1742
Medium	Oil on canvas
Movement	Rococo
Dimensions	98.2 cm × 73.5 cm (38.7 in × 28.9 in)
Location	Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio[1]

Description

The painting employs a trompe-l'œil technique and shows a skinned leg of lamb behind a dead hare, depicted with its eye open and a single drop of blood hanging from the end of its nose. The hare and the leg of lamb are nailed together to a wall.^[4][5]

Oudry was known for his canvases featuring dead game, and A Hare and a Leg of Lamb has been described as, "uncannily real."^[6] Others have criticized the canvas as, "lifeless and inert...both highly contrived and utterly dead."^[4]

The painting was originally commissioned to be hung in a dining room.^[7]