Louis XV chassant le cerf dans la forêt de Saint-Germain

Jean-Baptiste Oudry was the leading French painter of hunting subjects and animal pictures in the first half of the eighteenth century, and his depiction of Louis XV hunting stag in the Forest of Saint-Germain in 1730 is among the most imposing of his royal hunting commissions. Louis XV was a passionate huntsman, and Oudry documented the royal chase in a series of large canvases celebrating the spectacle of court hunting as a display of royal power and aristocratic virility. The Forest of Saint-Germain, just west of Paris, was one of the principal royal hunting grounds.

Oudry organizes the chase across a receding forest interior, capturing the controlled chaos of horses, hounds, and riders at full gallop. His handling of dappled forest light, animal movement, and the varied textures of foliage, horse, and hound is technically virtuosic.