Oil/canvas, unsigned
I spotted this canvas at the Morristown Armory Antique Show not long ago. It was smack against the back wall of a booth and it really grabbed me. Of course I love animal paintings, not to mention images of rabbits, but this one struck me as painted before 1850 and it was not a genre scene, like those of my favorite artist William Holbrook Beard, but rather appeared scientific/anatomical. Although not visibly signed, clearly it was beautifully painted and the name Titian Ramsey Peale jumped into my brain. (That's the way that many of my "finds" are made.) Since the painting was not one of my true "finds" of pennies on the dollar, I went home with a digital image and spent some time researching Titian Peale's paintings and drawings of animals. His few known works feature animals positioned flat to the picture plane, with paws held together in front, and a white dot on the eyeball to indicate light reflection (see images above). Moreover, there are two small rabbit drawings by Peale, one in almost the identical position. Also repeated is the depiction of individual hairs in the fur and in most cases, a landscape extending into the distance behind the animal seen up close. So more work and perhaps time is needed to see if my gut judgment was correct this time around. Stay tuned!