Little Hunter

Game is slung over his shoulder: one raised hand holds the string of birds, the other tucks a pheasant against his side. An orange coat hangs open over blue trousers and coarse stockings, the feathered hat is pushed back, and the gun barrel runs down behind him. Three puppies sit at the foot of the group — a black-spotted white one, a ginger one with its muzzle up, a brown one propped against the rock. The stony mound with its small grasses binds boy and dogs into one sculptural mass.