Polar Bear, glancing right
Passe-partout (ref: 3856)
Black and white chalk, and pencil on paper, 8 5/8 x 8 5/8 in. (22 x 22 cm.)
(12 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. (31 x 31 cm.) framed)
Black and white chalk, and pencil on paper, 8 5/8 x 8 5/8 in. (22 x 22 cm.)
(12 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. (31 x 31 cm.) framed)
Provenance: Private Collection
Sheppard did not have the means to travel to Africa and based most of his drawings of animals observed at Regents Park Zoo. On the strength of these - through which he gained a reputation as one of the finest artists in this field - 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
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.
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).
