A strange one! There seems to be a long history of rooster paintings, cock fight paintings included, though I have not been able to put a finger on the precise origins of the genre. This one--oil on unstretched canvas, framed under glass--I found in Maine, and believe dates to the late 19th /early 20th c., with the frame perhaps original to it. And it certainly seems allegorical to me, though I'm not sure I understand all of its implications!
The pair of red fighting roosters at left (Kelso roosters I believe) appear to me to as rivals--though there seems a certain kinship between them too as they observe what I presume is the recent death of the third red rooster--lying, pale and lifeless, before them. All the while the white rooster (I believe a rooster rather than hen) stands apart, branch in beak, as if walking away with the prize. What to make of the bust on pillar with pink ribbon, seeming to watch over the proceedings, I have no real idea, though I have a sense of this painting as indictment of the establishment that he represents. (And surely the table, missing its far right leg, with white jug sitting atop it, is symbolic too.) Perhaps a metaphor for a specific political moment, or perhaps speaking more broadly about power and its dynamics...it definitely seems to me we are meant to understand the white rooster as the instigator of the whole situation, walking away with the spoils while leaving victims in his wake. (A reading which could work equally well if a hen rather than a rooster, and one could throw dynamics of desire into the mix, too!)
Framed, as found, under glass: 14 3/8" x 10 1/2". Sight: 12 5/8" x 8 7/8". Painting in very good, clean and crisp condition, with light general wear to the black paint over gesso frame, as there should be.
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