Following yesterdays post I looked up Game painting, specifically deer. The major players Jan Van Weenix and Frans Snyders. I guess it would come to this sooner or later…dead animals. So here is my confession.
Hi my name is Justin Harrison and I have a thing about dead animals. My friends if the see road kill - think of me or send pictures. This theme always seem too manifest sooner or later in my work.
I guess maybe the MA is the place to follow this moribund thread.
I’m thinking about a body of work and this actually plays very well into it, I’ll need to research some more, but revolves around ‘bag dumps’ that you see often on Instagram, Youtube - If you follow Bushcrafters or survivalists. I like the idea of making the contents of a bag dump but for a 17th Century Game Keeper of for an imagined traveller/ initiate.
Kit for the rite of passage///
Knife, Compass, cordage, bag, invented tools.
There is something I love about the game paintings, the colours and lighting, a strange tableaux. As I look through the galleries of images I could collect more…
I feel like there are some interesting and deeper connections, but having had very little sleep for the past few days I’m gonna trust that I’ll figure it out…
Image References:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-huntsman-cutting-up-a-dead-deer-with-two-deerhounds-jan-weenix.html
A Huntsman cutting up a Dead Deer, with Two Deerhounds
Jan Van Weenix
https://www.passionforpaintings.com/en/art-gallery/sir-edwin-henry-landseer-painter/of-a-dead-stag-oil-painting-reproduction
Of A Dead Stag
Painted originally by: Landseer Sir Edwin Henry
Recommended: 25 x 18 "
http://community.artauthority.net/work.asp?wid=64064&pos=2
Title: Still Life with Dead Deer, Heron and Hunting Implements
Artist: Weenix, Jan
Year: c. 1690 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 47 15/16 x 62 3/8 in. (121.8 x 158.4 cm)
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131738/still-life-with-a-dead-oil-painting-snyders-frans/
Still Life with a Dead Stag
Snyders, Frans
Oil Painting 1640s Antwerp
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/still-life-with-dead-game-138951
Still Life with Dead Game
Frans Snyders (1579–1657)
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-591
A Dog and a Cat near a partially disembowelled Deer, Jan Baptist Weenix, 1645 - 1660 oil on canvas, h 180cm × w 162cm × d 12cm × w 46kg