Calf's Head and Ox Tongue
Gustave Caillebotte
1877–1887
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 73 × 54 cm (29 × 21 in.); Framed: 87.7 × 69.3 × 7.7 cm (34 1/2 × 27 1/4 × 3 in.)
- Genre
- Oil on canvas
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago
Styles
Tags
oil paintings (visual works)painting19th centurypaintcalfscanvasImpressionismoil on canvasfrenchanimalsdeathoil paint (paint)painting (image making)Marketpainting techniquescirclesstill lifeportraitsoil paintingfoodeuropean paintingoxen
About
Gustave Caillebotte may have been inspired by the butcher’s shop below his family home in Paris when he painted this bloody scene of animal parts ready for human consumption. Calf’s Head and Ox Tongue confronts viewers with objects that are visually unpleasant and yet rendered with highly decorative pastel colors and soft brushstrokes. Such still lifes are among Caillebotte’s most original compositions and stand in contrast to the attractive, highly marketable still lifes of his contemporaries Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
