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Source Description
With the subject of Carcasses, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was following an old artistic tradition. He was inspired by Rembrandt's (1606-1669) Slaughtered Ox (see photo) which he would have seen at the Louvre Museum. Decamps greatly admired the Dutch master and owned several paintings by him. In spite of the inspiration from Rembrandt, Decamps's watercolor of about 200 years later conveys a different mood. Instead of focusing on a single butchered corpse as Rembrandt had, Decamps viewed his bodies and slabs of meat from further back, and he included domestic objects and a background figure standing at a table. Decamps's resulting image stands less as a symbol of death and more as a matter-of-fact representation of daily life.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
166622
label
Carcasses
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
166622
contentType
drawing
title
Carcasses
description
With the subject of Carcasses, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was following an old artistic tradition. He was inspired by Rembrandt's (1606-1669) Slaughtered Ox (see photo) which he would have seen at the Louvre Museum. Decamps greatly admired the Dutch master and owned several paintings by him. In spite of the inspiration from Rembrandt, Decamps's watercolor of about 200 years later conveys a different mood. Instead of focusing on a single butchered corpse as Rembrandt had, Decamps viewed his bodies and slabs of meat from further back, and he included domestic objects and a background figure standing at a table. Decamps's resulting image stands less as a symbol of death and more as a matter-of-fact representation of daily life.
date
1840–1860
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79997123
creators
1652
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 24.6 x 17.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
cul
France, 19th century
accession
2008.344
Source extras
tec
watercolor and gouache
tombstone
Carcasses, 1840–1860. Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803–1860). Watercolor and gouache; sheet: 24.6 x 17.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2008.344
supportMaterials
description
beige wove paper
collection
DR - French
inscriptions
inscription
signed, lower right, in black gouache: Decamps; verso, upper right, in graphite: 73; upper center, in graphite: [illegible] [Bruget?] / a [Degert?] [all partially erased]; upper center, in graphite: (Decamps [written over previous inscription]; center, in graphite: 19 [circled]; lower right, in graphite: 19 x 12 2; lower left, in graphite: 82; lower right, in graphite: d559cfe 2 s
citations
citation
Exhibition of French drawings, post Neo-Classicism, 20 February-27 March 1975 : [held at] P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd / [catalogue compiled and introduction written by Jane Low].
page_number
Referenced: cat. no. 46, p. 24
citation
Rohowsky, Peter S. <em>French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels, Watercolors: Nov. 1977-Feb. 1978</em>. New York: Shepherd Gallery Associates, 1977.
citation
Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. <em>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</em>. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page_number
Referenced: cat. no. 33, p. 76-77, Reproduced: p. 77
creditline
Bequest of Muriel Butkin
updatedAt
2026-05-29 08:36:17.979000
sourceId
166622
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - French
med
watercolor and gouache
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
dea9275f84c8679a