{
"data": {
"id": 166622,
"accession_number": "2008.344",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Carcasses, 1840\u20131860. Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803\u20131860). Watercolor and gouache; sheet: 24.6 x 17.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2008.344",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Carcasses",
"creation_date": "1840\u20131860",
"creation_date_earliest": 1840,
"creation_date_latest": 1860,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "watercolor and gouache",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "beige wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - French",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 24.6 x 17.9 cm (9 11/16 x 7 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.246,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.179,
"width_inch": 7,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed, lower right, in black gouache: Decamps; verso, upper right, in graphite: 73; upper center, in graphite: [illegible] [Bruget?] / a [Degert?] [all partially erased]; upper center, in graphite: (Decamps [written over previous inscription]; center, in graphite: 19 [circled]; lower right, in graphite: 19 x 12 2; lower left, in graphite: 82; lower right, in graphite: d559cfe 2 s",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 187360,
"title": "French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin",
"description": "French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).",
"opening_date": "2001-08-26T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "French Drawings, Post Neo-Classicism, Colnaghi, London (1975), 24, no. 46.",
"opening_date": "1975-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolors, Shepherd Gallery, New York (1977), no. 22.",
"opening_date": "1977-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "[Colnaghi, London, 1975]. [Shepherd Gallery, New York, 1976-77]; purchased in 1977.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
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"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "With the subject of Carcasses, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps was following an old artistic tradition. He was inspired by Rembrandt's (1606-1669) Slaughtered Ox (see photo) which he would have seen at the Louvre Museum. Decamps greatly admired the Dutch master and owned several paintings by him. In spite of the inspiration from Rembrandt, Decamps's watercolor of about 200 years later conveys a different mood. Instead of focusing on a single butchered corpse as Rembrandt had, Decamps viewed his bodies and slabs of meat from further back, and he included domestic objects and a background figure standing at a table. Decamps's resulting image stands less as a symbol of death and more as a matter-of-fact representation of daily life.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79997123"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2008.344-carcasses"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Exhibition of French drawings, post Neo-Classicism, 20 February-27 March 1975 : [held at] P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd / [catalogue compiled and introduction written by Jane Low].",
"page_number": "Referenced: cat. no. 46, p. 24",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Rohowsky, Peter S. French Nineteenth Century Drawings, Pastels, Watercolors: Nov. 1977-Feb. 1978. New York: Shepherd Gallery Associates, 1977.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.",
"page_number": "Referenced: cat. no. 33, p. 76-77, Reproduced: p. 77",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.344",
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"date_created": "2008-10-28T19:52:02",
"annotation": ""
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"creditline": "Bequest of Muriel Butkin",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
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"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 166622,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1652,
"description": "Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, 1803\u20131860)",
"extent": null,
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"role": "artist",
"biography": "Decamps was born into a bourgeois family and as a young boy sent by his father to the Picardian countryside to experience the realities of peasant life. These formative years not only nurtured his interest for nature but also directed him toward an artistic career. He returned to Paris in 1816 and studied briefly with \u00c9tienne Bouhot (1780-1862), who painted architectural scenes. In 1818, Decamps joined the studio of Alexandre-Denis Abel de Pujol (1785-1861), and copied (Dutch) Old Master paintings in the Louvre. Unimpressed with his academic education, Decamps had become an independent artist by 1820. He earned an income and a reputation with satirical lithographs and anecdotal scenes that were popular with collectors. Decamps's Salon debut occurred in 1827, and the following year he became one of the first distinguished European artists to travel to Asia Minor and North Africa. He returned to Paris with countless drawings and sketches that would serve him for the rest of his career and quickly became one of the leading orientalist painters. He also renewed his earlier interest in lithography and published an album of his hunting scenes. In 1835, he made a journey to Italy, where he studied the works of Raphael (1485-1520) and Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). Upon his return, he began painting biblical scenes, set against convincing depictions of Near Eastern landscapes, based on his earlier travels. He went to the forest of Fontainebleau in 1843-44 and befriended Dupr\u00e9 (q.v.). Decamps would revisit Fontainebleau ten years later and purchased a house there in 1857. He was one of the most successful and famous artists of this time. His patrons included the Marquis Mason, the Barons de Rothschild, and the Duc d'Orl\u00e9ans. He was elected to the Salon Jury in 1851 and kept this position until 1853. In 1855, at the Paris Exposition Universelle, his works were featured in a retrospective exhibition, along with those of Delacroix (q.v.) and Ingres (q.v.). Although he was a critically acclaimed and financially successful artist during his lifetime, Decamps's reputation quickly waned after his death in 1860.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1803",
"death_year": "1860",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2009-03-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1840,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1840\u20131860",
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:36:17.979000"
}
}