David Shepherd

David Shepherd was a British artist best known for striking scenes of elephants, tigers, and other animals observed and painted in Africa. In addition to his work as an artist, he was also one of the world's most outspoken conservationists and the founder of an eponymous foundation dedicated to the protection of wildlife, for which he was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2008.

This extraordinary series of sketches, made in the Masai village in Kenya, centers on the head of a lion, surrounded by a cheetah, giraffes, hippopotami, zebras, a buffalo, crocodile, and a grey crowned crane. Shepherd's handwritten notes are scattered throughout the canvas, detailing particular animals, color choices, and compositional arrangements. Together, these annotated studies exemplify the kinds of encounters that Shepherd actively sought out and strove to capture.