2-979-571 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Dead Rabbit" - painted by J. Clark - from the Exhibition of the British Institution, 1857. 'The artist has...so successfully rendered the expression of the boys' regret for the fate of their favourite that we can scarcely refrain from testifying our sympathy with their simple grief; especially as their disappointment must be so much increased to find that poor "bunny" will no more be able to nibble any of the fresh green fodder they have provided with such solicitude, and so plentifully . There is a touch of humour, though, in the way in which the bigger boy is holding up the rabbit. In order to ascertain if their pet be really quite dead, he holds it up by the ears in the most unceremonious and boylike manner possible...the effect is gained by an amount of stippling which leaves a certain illusive indistinctness, or "muzziness" if you will'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.