gustave courbet the dead hind
Yesterday evening at sunset we heard a gunshot nearby. In the vast meadow next to our house a roe deer was walking slowly in the high grass. When we heard a second gun shot the roe deer fell down. Two hunters came out of the edge of the woods and went to the dead animal. Only two days ago I stood eye in eye with a roebuck at the same place. A roe deer going down is a dramatic moment, also for an hunter. May be because the end of its life reinforces the beauty and refined elegance of a roe deer.
The French realist painter Gustave Courbet, who was a passionate hunter, expressed these feelings in a tender painting of a dead hind. He painted many roe deers and several hunting scenes.