Label Text:
Acquired by the Mead in 1964 as an anonymous work, this tender, restrained rendering of two vanquished game fowl (likely Northern Bobwhites) hanging from a thread can now be attributed to the still life painter Richard La Barre Goodwin. Goodwin specialized in highly illusionistic depictions of dead game, hanging alone or in pairs and against stark backgrounds, much like the Mead’s picture. The painter’s obsession with these innocent lifeless carcasses gains poignant meaning when considered with regard to his personal history: he was an injured veteran of the Civil War. Thus, Goodwin’s painting may have functioned as a memento mori, a visual metaphor for the brevity of human life. The inclusion of two nearly identical birds joined in death could allude to the Civil War, which divided a once-common people, and then united them in a shared experience of profound loss.
RRG, 2011
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1964.136 |
