£730
Polar Bear
Passe-partout (ref: 3391)
Chalk and pastel on grey paper
10 1/2 x 9 in. (26.7 x 23 cm.)
Stain to left hand margin
Provenance: Christine Sheppard, the artist’s daughter
Literature: ‘Drawings at the Zoo’, The Studio, 1949, p.28
Sheppard’s output as a graphic artist was prodigious, but he is less well known today than he might be, partly on account of his early death, at the age of forty-five. His remarkable studies of birds and animals from life were mainly undertaken at Regent’s Park Zoo. On the strength of these he was made a Fellow of the Zoological Society in 1949. In the same year, he published ‘Drawing at the Zoo’, one of three collaborations made with The Studio magazine.
EH Gombrich references Raymond Sheppard's 'How to Draw Birds', and includes a reproduction of one of his drawings, in his celebrated treatise 'Art and Illusion', (1960).
