Display of Chickens and Game Birds
Gustave Caillebotte·1882
Historical Context
Display of Chickens and Game Birds (1882) belongs to Caillebotte's series of butcher's and market still lifes that he exhibited at Impressionist group shows and which represent one of the most provocative aspects of his practice. Like the rib of beef and his fish market paintings, this work depicts the raw material of bourgeois consumption without aesthetic distance or culinary prettification. These still lifes connect to both the Dutch tradition of kitchen and market still life and to the broader Impressionist commitment to the frank observation of contemporary life in all its aspects.
Technical Analysis
The display of game birds and poultry creates a complex visual field of varied textures — feathers, flesh, hanging birds — that Caillebotte renders with his characteristic close observation. The specific plumage of each bird type, the colors of flesh and feather, and the quality of light on the display are treated with the same visual precision he brought to his more socially elevated subjects.
