Emil Soren Carlsen (1853-1932),
Still Life with Goose, 1883, oil on canvas, 36 3/8 x 60 1/4 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchase/gift of the Mahonri M. Young Estate, 1959.
Images of dead game were common in the nineteenth century, not only in stylish paintings like this but also in dining room furniture, where dead stags and game birds were often carved on elaborate wooden sideboards. A recently killed animal seemed an appropriate subject for the room in which the resulting feast would occur. Yet there is some irony that dead animals became a common subject in fine art and furniture design for the high-class individuals who had little part in the daily procurement of their own meals. In other words, people who actually hunted for their daily food could never afford a painting such as this. See
Still Life with Goose on display now in Becoming America at the MOA.