The Kill - Deer Hunting in the Grand Jura Forests

The Kill - Deer Hunting in the Grand Jura Forests (French La Curée, chasse au chevreuil dans les forêts du Grand Jura) was an 1857 painting by Gustave Courbet. It was his first work on a hunting theme and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[1]

The Kill - Deer Hunting in the Grand Jura Forests
Artist	Gustave Courbet
Year	1857
Type	oil on canvas
Dimensions	210.2 cm × 183.5 cm (82.8 in × 72.2 in)
Location	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, Massachusetts

It depicts a scene following a deer hunt in the Jura Mountains in which a dead deer is hanging suspended by its hing leg from a tree, attended by dogs and huntsmen; the central figure leaning on a tree is a self-portrait. A few hunting rituals are portrayed such as the blowing of the horn and the feeding of the entrails to the dogs. Originally smaller and featuring only the hunter (Courbet) and his kill, the canvas was later physically extended in both dimensions to include the pink-coated huntsman and the dogs.

Courbet became very interested in hunting during an extended stay in Frankfurt and went on to paint some 80 hunting scenes. This work was acquired by the Boston museum in 1918, the first Courbet canvas to enter the US.