Nibbling on a leaf pulled from a stalk of Lady's Mantle, an alert hare sits at the edge of a pine forest. Unlike the darkness one would expect to find in a forest, Hans Hoffmann painted a theatrically illuminated scene. Each plant and insect--snail, cricket, beetle--is seen in vivid detail. The finely wrought leaves of the thistle, the sprawling fronds of a plantain, and the bright blue flowers of the Hare Bell attest to Hoffmann's meticulous treatment of the subject. In fact, none of these plants could have coexisted in the natural world. Hoffmann imaginatively combined numerous individual nature studies in a single painting.
   Hoffmann's golden-brown hare is based on Albrecht Dürer's famous and influential watercolor which, much like his Stag Beetle, shows a hare against a plain ground. Hoffmann had seen Dürer's hare while in Nuremburg. Later, when he went to work in the court of Emperor Rudolf II, he helped the Emperor acquire the watercolor for his Kunstkammer. Hoffmann's hare differs from Dürer's, however, appearing amid a striking arrangement of elegant plants and insects. At the time it was painted, this arrangement of nearly life-size subjects was entirely unique, not only within Hoffmann's body of work, but also within the tradition of German nature study.

百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com

　　一头警惕的野兔静坐在一片松树林的空地，正在啃着一片从淑女斗篷草上扯下来的叶子。- 霍斯曼打破了人们对大森林黑暗无边的固执幻想，重新为我们绘制了一个明亮的舞台般的场景。观众一定会惊奇地发现并欣赏这里的蜗牛、甲虫、蝴蝶、蜥蜴以及歇脚的鸟儿。

　　又细长又弯曲的蓟叶、蔓延舒展的车前草以及兔钟草花鲜艳的蓝色都向我们展示了这个被霍夫曼精心打理过的美妙自然 – 尽管这些植物并不能在真实的自然界共存，但仍让我们对其富有想象力且不乏科学研究的作品感到惊叹。

　　霍夫曼的这头金棕色野兔与他的《鹿角甲虫》（Stag Beetle）一样，在平坦的地面上表现出野兔的动和静，其灵感来源于阿尔布雷希特·丢勒（Albrecht Dürer）著名而有影响力的水彩画，霍夫曼曾在纽伦堡见过丢勒的《野兔》， 后来当他在鲁道夫二世皇帝的宫廷中工作时，他说服皇帝从其工作室购买水彩画 – 霍夫曼的野兔与丢勒还是有明显地不同，尤其是引人注目的典雅植物和昆虫为画面增添独到的情趣。

　　在这幅《森林野兔》中，这种接近真实比例的主题内容是极为独特的，这是德国传统自然作品的典型风格。