Every hair is there. The soft brown fur on its back, the paler fur on its chest, the long whiskers that catch the light. Its ears are up, its back legs tucked under, as if it has just heard something and hasn't yet decided whether to run.
And if you look very closely at its eye, you'll see a tiny reflection: the shape of a window.
Albrecht Dürer, Young Hare, 1502. Albertina, Vienna
A hare in the studio
Albrecht Dürer painted it in Nuremberg in 1502, in watercolour and gouache on paper. The reflection in the eye suggests he worked indoors, near a window, perhaps from a living animal, perhaps from a hare that had been brought to him from a hunt. Nobody knows for sure.
What we do know is how patient it is. Each strand of fur is a separate stroke, some laid in watercolour, some picked out in opaque white. It's less a painting of a hare than a record of hours spent looking at one.
Why you'll probably see a copy
Works on paper fade in the light. So the Albertina in Vienna keeps the original hare in the dark most of the time and shows it only rarely, for a few weeks at a time. The rest of the year, visitors see a facsimile.
There's something lovely in that: a masterpiece that rests more than it works.
Slow looking with something small
You don't need a hare. Anything small will do: a leaf, a shell, a cup, a key.
- Place the object near a window, in natural light.
- Look at it for one minute without naming anything. Only shapes.
- Now look for textures. Where is it smooth? Where is it rough?
- Look for the light. Where does it fall? Can you find a reflection, even a tiny one?
- If you like, take a pencil and draw only its outline, without looking at the paper.
- Close your eyes and see the object in your mind. Notice how much more of it you know now than five minutes ago.
For more, try contour gazing, the drawing meditation, or look for other hidden details in famous paintings.
Remember what you noticed
The Collector's Diary is a free printable zine for remembering your encounters with art: where you met a painting, what you noticed first, and how it made you feel.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi