Stilleven met dode kip 1878

This is "Stilleven met dode kip" (Still Life with Dead Chicken), an etching made by Théodule Ribot in the late 19th century. Ribot, working outside the dominant academic styles, often focused on the everyday, like this stark image of a lifeless chicken. At first glance, it's a simple still life, but it's imbued with a sense of the real and the raw. Ribot’s exploration of light and shadow transforms this mundane subject into something quietly profound. There's an honesty here, a refusal to pretty things up. In a society that often demands the concealment of death and decay, Ribot brings it to the forefront. Still life paintings can be revealing of a society's relationship to food, consumption and death. Here, we're invited to confront our own relationship to the food chain, and the emotional distance we often create from the realities of sustenance. The image stays with you, it invites reflection about what we consume, and what we choose not to see.