Collection Online
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
75.0 × 110.0 cm
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.r.: Edmond Tschaggeny. 1864.
inscribed in pen and ink on white painted patch on reverse l.r.: Je declare avoir peint le / tableau (...illeg) entre. / Bruxelles 25 Mars 1864 / Edmond Tschaggeny
Accession Number
p.301.6-1
Department
International Painting
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased by the Commissioners of Fine Arts for Victoria, 1864
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work

Edmond Tschaggeny and his brother Charles were specialist animal painters active in Europe in the mid-nineteenth century. Charles forte was painting cattle while Edmond's was sheep and cattle. Indeed the lone shepherd here is relegated to the far background to the right while the amimals occupy centre stage. The level of detail and realism in this work is astounding, even for a time when these qualities were highly praised. It is well known that Edmond went to great lengths to hone and research his craft and he once made the illustrations for a book on the anatomy of cattle based on his own experience of disection.

Subjects (general)
Animals
Subjects (specific)
domestic sheep (species) livestock repose (activity) shepherds
Provenance
With Ernest Gambart (dealer), French Gallery, London, 1864; from where purchased by Sir Charles Eastlake, for the NGV, 1864.

Exhibited Pictures by Artists of the French and Flemish Schools, 11th Exhibition of the French Gallery, London, 1864, no. 163; Fine Arts Gallery (Compartment 10), Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne, 1866, no. 316; The First Collections, University Gallery, Melbourne, 1992, no. 9.