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Calf's Head and Ox Tongue

A white severed calf's head is suspended from a hook in its nose at right, painted with blue undertones and pink and yellow highlights. At left is a severed ox tongue and mouth rendered in soft white, pinks, and reds, all against a blue-gray background.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A white severed calf's head is suspended from a hook in its nose at right, painted with blue undertones and pink and yellow highlights. At left is a severed ox tongue and mouth rendered in soft white, pinks, and reds, all against a blue-gray background.

Date:

c. 1882

Artist:

Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894)

About this artwork

Gustave Caillebotte may have been inspired by the butcher’s shop below his family home in Paris when he painted this bloody scene of animal parts ready for human consumption. Calf’s Head and Ox Tongue confronts viewers with objects that are visually unpleasant and yet rendered with highly decorative pastel colors and soft brushstrokes. Such still lifes are among Caillebotte’s most original compositions and stand in contrast to the attractive, highly marketable still lifes of his contemporaries Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Status

On View, Gallery 201

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Gustave Caillebotte

Title

Calf's Head and Ox Tongue

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1877–1887

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

73 × 54 cm (29 × 21 in.); Framed: 87.7 × 69.3 × 7.7 cm (34 1/2 × 27 1/4 × 3 in.)

Credit Line

Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment

Reference Number

1999.561

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/154121/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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