The slaughtered animals hung on the wall, as well as the chunks of meat on the counter and in the young man's bowl, appear to be illuminated by another light source in the front.

Horst Uhr's interpretation suggests that the dark-toned background creates a striking contrast with the vibrant, multi-colored pieces of meat displayed on the counter and wall.

Corinth studied painting in Königsberg and Munich before spending almost three years between 1884 and 1887 at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he was primarily influenced by the neoclassical works of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and by the Impressionism and Pointillism of contemporary French art.

In 1887 Corinth returned to Munich, inspired by the work Die Wilderer (The Poachers) by Wilhelm Leibl exhibited at the Kunstsalon Georges Petit.

Some of the earliest surviving depictions of domestic animal slaughter can be found in ancient Egypt, such as the relief carvings in the Mastaba of Ti,[8] which date back to r 2400 roughly BC during the 5th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

During the 16th century, painters like Pieter Aertsen from the Netherlands and Annibale Carracci from Italy created numerous artworks featuring meat pieces and animal halves displayed in butcher shops.

[12] In 1892, he began painting the first series of slaughterhouse scenes, including Schlachterei ("Butcher Shop"),[13] Kühe im Stall ("Cows in the Stable"),[14] and the initial version of Geschlachteter Ochse ("Slaughtered Ox").

Additionally, the presence of bloody and slippery pools on the slaughterhouse floor contributes to a "sultry atmosphere" that evokes sensations beyond mere visual perception.

[18][25] Meanwhile, Georg Biermann's 1913 description characterizes the painting as artistically exquisite, with a rich and intense color palette consisting of delicate white and red tones.

[4] Bärnreuther's analysis states that Schlachterladen in Schäftlarn an der Isar portrays a shift in tone compared to the intense excitement of slaughter depicted in Im Schlachthaus ("In the Slaughterhouse") from 1893.

"[12] "The journeyman in the butcher's store is most grandly captured: the impulsive face with the ruffled hair is distorted into a narrow grin and glaringly split in the slant between highlight and shadow.

A demon figure on the threshold of the century, which in its deepest abysses will also estimate man himself according to his mere living weight – and yet only a butcher's journeyman of Bavarian-rural kind, so self-evident that of all that certainly only the painter, and even he hardly suspecting, writes something on the canvas.

He describes the goods in the store gleaming in the sunlight and highlights the presence of a laughing butcher's boy holding a bowl of succulent beef pieces, seemingly presenting them for sale.

"[12] Around 1925, the year of Corinth's death, the White Russian painter Chaim Soutine in Paris took up the theme of slaughterhouse scenes again, depicting them in an expressionist manner with red and yellow animals and blue "killing apparatus."

Another artist was Norbert Tadeusz, who in 1983 painted a hanging bovine and in a study for his large-scale Vorhölle – Abnahme (Limbo – decrease) gave a slaughtered animal body the shape of a woman.

[32] The interpretations for Schlachterladen in Schäftlarn an der Isar refer to various aspects, which several critics associate with the entire series of Corinth's slaughterhouse paintings.

[12] In his autobiographical writings, he described these memories in various ways, such as recalling the butchers who came to the house to negotiate the freshly stripped hides from cows and fat pigs.

Many a person would probably scold me when I poked my eyes out of the pig's head and did similar inquisitive things; on the other hand, the cow, when it hung in the attic, was always regarded with a certain reverence and sadness.

Especially in this work Corinth described in detail the scene of the slaughterhouse and the slaughter of an ox, where "Heinrich" was present and where he could paint it:[34] "White steam smoked from the broken bodies of the animals.

"In 1996, Jill Lloyd analyzed Lovis Corinth's processing of his childhood memories and his choice of subject matter, including the slaughterhouse paintings and other motifs.

[27] Lloyd describes how the presence of blood streaming down large carcasses hanging from the ceiling seemed to provoke a primal and almost sexual excitement, enhancing the liveliness of these paintings.

[21][22] The contrasting elements of the butcher's shop and the studio, blood-soaked flesh, and sensuous skin serve as the pole between which Corinth constructs his pictorial narrative.

Imiela also wonders if the scales hanging in the background behind the boy allude to a balancing act, adding a death reference and vanitas motif to the painting.

On the other hand, Lucia Blee-Beck notes that the vibrant red and green hues create a loosened or relaxed mood, contrasting with the vanitas concept.

[4] According to Gert von der Osten, "killing and being destroyed" as well as the "pale white fat and the dead red of life of the broken open animals" was for Corinth at this time "above all a feast".

[12] Friedrich Gross relates this fascination with the theme of slaughter to the "fundamental destructive appropriation by man" and a "predatory lust and horror of the dismemberment of the living."

[27] According to Zimmermann, there is a clear relationship between Lovis Corinth's portrayal of slaughterhouse scenes and his interest in depicting naked bodies and the embodiment of flesh, specifically the color and texture of the skin, in his work.

Zimmermann directly compares the coloring of his wife's body with Geschlachteter Ochse: "The skin is repeatedly suffused with red as if of exuberant vitality, but the swellings shimmer like pearly white.

Similar to Hugo von Tschudi at the National Gallery in Berlin, Gustav Pauli sought to acquire works by notable artists, including Paula Modersohn-Becker and French and German Impressionists.

[1] In more recent years, Schlachterladen in Schäftlarn an der Isar was part of the exhibition "Augenschmaus – Vom Essen im Stillleben" at the Bank Austria Kunstforum in Vienna in 2010.