Hand modeled terracottas are rare in Barye's ouevre as he preferred to use cast plaster touched with wax. Not only can a plaster be re-worked but it can be used for making molds. In the atelier sale of 1876 there were twenty-four "esquisse terre cuite" which were mainly sketches for sculptures not conceived in bronze.

However, this present work is a preparatory terracotta sketch for the bronze of Cheval attaqué par un tigre, an example of which was sold in these rooms on February 15, 1995, lot 180.