The Wallace Collection

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Dogs, Dead Game and Fruit
  • Alexandre-François Desportes (1661 - 1743)
  • Dogs, Dead Game and Fruit
  • France
  • 1715
  • Painting
  • Oil on canvas
  • Image size: 128.5 x 161.5 cm
  • Signature: 'Desportes. / 1715'
  • P594
  • Dining Room
Commentary
History
Further Reading
  • The painting is a brilliant example of the more ambitious buffets Desportes began to paint at the end of Louis XIV’s reign. It is an adapted version of a picture dated 1712, formerly in the collection of Louis XIV and now in the Louvre, with a vertical composition without the dog on the right. Another similar composition was probably painted for the Earl of Stanhope during Desportes stay in England 1712/13. Desportes followed the Flemish still-life tradition that was popular in Paris and that he absorbed from his teacher Bernaerts but developed a reduces, harmonious colour scheme and developed a more dramatic compositions. The dogs add a narrative element. The porphyry vase indicates that the painting was intended for a high-ranking patron.