The artwork entitled “Pheasant, Duck and Fruit” was crafted by Eugene Boudin in the year 1879 in France. The medium employed for this piece is oil, and it is an exemplification of the Realism movement of the nineteenth century. The genre of this work is classified as still life, a genre that seeks to represent inanimate objects in a life-like manner.
In the artwork, the viewer is presented with a rustic and richly textured composition. At the center, there is a woven wicker basket, abundantly filled with various fruits whose rounded forms and subtle hues evoke a sense of ripened abundance. To the left, partly cloaked in shadow, is another solitary fruit, contributing to the sense of casual arrangement typical of still life compositions. Adjacent to the basket, to the right, are the feathered bodies of a pheasant and a duck, positioned vertically, with their distinctive plumage details rendered in short, precise brushstrokes that capture their natural coloration and texture. The dark background serves to enhance the contrast and draws the viewer’s attention to the items depicted. The overall atmosphere of the scene is one of rich, tactile surfaces and a celebration of natural forms, indicative of the Realist movement’s focus on depicting subjects truthfully without idealization.
