Chevreuils à la source

Courbet's hunting and animal subjects belong to a distinct strand of his work that drew on the traditions of Flemish and Dutch animal painting while insisting on the physicality of the natural world as he actually observed it in Franche-Comté. Chevreuils à la source (Deer at the Spring), painted in 1865, now in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, shows roe deer — the most common ungulates in the French forests Courbet knew — gathered at a woodland water source. These animal subjects were popular with private collectors and allowed Courbet to demonstrate his naturalist credentials: he hunted, he knew these animals in the field, and he rendered them with an accuracy born of direct observation rather than taxidermy or zoo sketching. The forest spring setting was also an opportunity to combine his two great landscape subjects — woodland interior and water — in a single composition. The roe deer's elegant, slightly nervous presence amid the dappled forest offered a different register from the monumental human figures of his early career.

The deer are painted with smooth, carefully blended strokes for their tawny coats, contrasting with the rougher, more impasted treatment of the surrounding vegetation and water. Their eyes and facial details receive the most detailed handling, establishing the specific alertness of wild prey animals.