Sketch for "The Wolf Turned Shepherd" (recto)
Gustave Doré (French, 1832–1883)
c. 1868
- Medium
- graphite
- Classification
- Drawing
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 30.1 x 22.2 cm (11 7/8 x 8 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- France, 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Leo Weidenthal
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
“The Wolf Turned Shepherd” is a fable in which a disguised wolf approaches a flock of sheep while their shepherd sleeps. The wolf is ultimately discovered while impersonating the shepherd, waking the flock’s caretaker with its howl. Gustave Doré’s early sketch focuses on the wolf’s piercing gaze, highlighting his cleverness and overconfidence. Doré was among the most successful and versatile illustrators of the mid-1800s, and his illustrations for The Fables of La Fontaine—to which the final version of this drawing belongs—contributed to his fame. First published in France in 1867, the book was soon reissued in other countries.
