Dead Fowl

In the mid-1920s, Chaim Soutine produced a group of still-life paintings featuring hanging fowl and freshly butchered sides of meat, subjects represented in European art for centuries. Rather than depict the animals as lifeless and limp, he often portrayed them as tragic figures, as in the painting here. The animated quality of the thick, swirling paint suggests the bird is writhing in its final moments. These visceral still lifes were inspired by Soutine’s study of 17th-century Dutch market scenes, yet were painted after carcasses he arranged in his studio.