Sheep and a Lamb

Rosa Bonheur's 'Sheep and a Lamb' (1886) is a late work from the most celebrated animal painter of the nineteenth century — her sheep subjects extending throughout her career from the monumental 'Horse Fair' to these more intimate studies of individual animals and small groups. Bonheur's engagement with sheep was among her most sustained — her farm at By in the Forest of Fontainebleau provided her with direct daily access to the animals she depicted, and her intimate knowledge of their specific forms, movements, and behaviors distinguished her work from more superficially observed animal painting.

Bonheur renders the sheep and lamb with the close observational accuracy that was the foundation of her animal painting — the specific forms of the sheep's woolly bodies, the lamb's smaller and more delicate scale, and the particular quality of animal alertness or repose depicted with intimate knowledge. Her technique in smaller animal subjects shows her directness of observation without the compositional complexity of her large-scale group works. The relationship between the adult sheep and the lamb creates the warm center of the intimate composition.