Size: Frame 66 x 51 cm, drawing inside mount 44 x 26 cm
Condition: The drawing has some old surface wear and appears to have been laid to card. The used frame and mount are in good condition, some minor scuff to the edge of the frame.
This drawing is not in great condition but it is exceptionally rare and by one of the great wildlife artists of the Darwinian age, sometimes called "the father of wildlife art".
The drawing is charcoal with wash highlights (mainly on the fur of the rabbits). It is signed by Wolf bottom right with the date 1875.
Joseph Wolf (1820 – 1899) was a German artist who specialized in natural history illustration. He moved to the British Museum in 1848 and became the preferred illustrator for explorers and naturalists including David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates. Wolf depicted animals accurately in lifelike postures and is considered one of the great pioneers of wildlife art. Sir Edwin Landseer thought him "...without exception, the best all-round animal artist who ever lived".
This appears to be a large drawing for Wolf. A collection of 120 postcard-sized drawings sold at Sotheby's a few years a go for £120,000.