Still Life with Dead Hares

Goya turned to still life in his later years and painted only about a dozen, each of identical small format, representing different types of fish, meat, and game. Scrutinizing his dead subjects with the same searching power he employed for his human sitters, Goya executed these works with a particularly brilliant technique in which the rapidly applied brushstrokes are visible, yet blend seamlessly into his subject. Here, he seems to paint with the very materials that he depicts: the fur and blood of two hares shot in a hunt.