Still Life of Game

Held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, this still life of game belongs to the Ashmolean's distinguished collection of Dutch and Flemish works assembled from the seventeenth century onward through gift, bequest, and purchase. The Ashmolean holds both this painting and the dogs-and-monkey study, making it one of the more significant British institutional holdings of Boel's work. Still lifes of game without live animals represent the quieter register of Boel's output — compositions focused on the formal and textural qualities of dead birds and mammals rather than the narrative drama of hunt scenes with hounds. Such works were produced in quantity for the speculative market and for specific commissions from hunting-oriented households.

Without live animals to introduce dynamic tension, pure game still lifes rely entirely on compositional arrangement and surface rendering to maintain interest. Boel creates variety through the careful placement of different species — large and small game, feathered and furred — and through the lighting of each individual piece, ensuring that no two adjacent items compete or merge tonally.