Stag Hunt

Stag Hunt, dated 1723 and at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, places Oudry within the grand tradition of royal hunting painting that ran from Rubens and Snyders through the seventeenth-century French hunting tapestry tradition. The stag was the most prestigious quarry in aristocratic hunting — the cerf, subject of the royal chasse à courre, was specifically protected for the king and high nobility, and its depiction carried direct associations with royal prerogative. By 1723 Oudry was working toward his appointment as painter to Louis XV, and stag hunt subjects were directly relevant to the royal hunting culture he was seeking to document. The Stockholm canvas represents an early major work in the hunting narrative format that he would develop to its fullest expression in the Chasses Royales tapestry series commissioned by Louis XV.

Canvas with the multi-figure dynamic composition of a full-scale hunting scene. Stag hunt painting required convincing rendering of horses and dogs at full gallop, figures on horseback, and the stag itself — all in motion, all interacting — creating compositional demands far exceeding those of his static game still lifes. Oudry manages the chaos through careful diagonal organization and tonal contrast that separates animal forms from landscape.