Animals · 2 min read

Dürer's Young Hare (1502) and the Art of Looking Closely

May 2024

Listen to this story3 min

Albrecht Dürer, born on 21 May 1471, painted a hare in 1502 so closely observed that you can follow single hairs, and see a window reflected in its eye. Thirteen years later he made a rhinoceros he had never seen. Between the two lies a lesson in looking.

Albrecht Dürer, Young Hare, watercolor and bodycolor, 1502 — Albrecht Dürer, *Young Hare*, 1502. Watercolor and bodycolor. Albertina, Vienna. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Twenty-five centimeters of fur

The painting is small, about 25 by 22.5 cm, and shows nothing but the hare.² Dürer worked in watercolor and bodycolor, heightened with opaque white.³ Up close, you can follow individual hairs and every change of shade.²

It is often called his most famous nature study.⁵ We first met this hare in our short history of watercolor.

Look closer

Two details reward a slow look. In the hare's eye, Dürer painted the reflection of a window, as if the animal were sitting in his studio.² And below it, like a signature on a letter, sits his AD monogram with the date.²

Detail of Dürer's Young Hare: the eye, with a window reflected in it — Detail: the eye, with a window reflected in it.

Detail of Dürer's Young Hare: the AD monogram and the date 1502 — Detail: the date, 1502, and the AD monogram.

A study, or a masterpiece?

Studies like this are often thought of as preparatory work, made to help with something bigger. When the Albertina in Vienna staged its great Dürer exhibition in 2019, it presented his nature studies of the early 1500s, the hare and the Large Piece of Turf among them, as “autonomous visual tours de force.”³

Dürer had trained as a draftsman in his father's goldsmith workshop in Nuremberg, and it shows: nothing is vague, every blade and every hair is placed.¹

Albrecht Dürer, The Large Piece of Turf, 1503 — Albrecht Dürer, *The Large Piece of Turf*, 1503. Albertina, Vienna. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A hare that hides

You can't simply walk in and see it. The watercolor is fragile, so the Albertina does not keep it on permanent display. A copy usually hangs in the museum instead.²

The original comes out only now and then, for a few special exhibitions, such as the Dürer show of 2019–20.² Seeing it in person is a small event.

Albrecht Dürer, The Rhinoceros, woodcut, 1515 — Albrecht Dürer, *The Rhinoceros*, 1515. Woodcut. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection. Public domain.

The animal he never saw

The text printed above this woodcut tells the story: a live rhinoceros had been brought from India to King Manuel of Portugal, in Lisbon. In Nuremberg, Dürer made a print of it, dated 1515.⁴

As the National Gallery of Art points out, he “never actually saw the animal.” His rhinoceros wears what looks like chain mail and armor, like a medieval knight, and has scales on its legs like a reptile.⁴

Put it next to the hare and you see the difference between drawing from life and drawing from a description: one is a portrait, the other a legend.