# Calf's Head and Ox Tongue

- By: Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848–1894)
- Date: c. 1882
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 73 × 54 cm (29 × 21 in.); Framed: 87.7 × 69.3 × 7.7 cm (34 1/2 × 27 1/4 × 3 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Major Acquisitions Centennial Endowment
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/154121)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/0274aa9e-95d1-2a8e-12e3-2b09d7749b4f/full/!1663,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Adult profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Gustave Caillebotte may have been inspired by the butcher’s shop below his family home in Paris when he painted this bloody scene of animal parts ready for human consumption. Calf’s Head and Ox Tongue confronts viewers with objects that are visually unpleasant and yet rendered with highly decorative pastel colors and soft brushstrokes. Such still lifes are among Caillebotte’s most original compositions and stand in contrast to the attractive, highly marketable still lifes of his contemporaries Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0