Christophe Fratin (1800-64) created a range of distinctive and romantic sculptures of animals. He often worked in terracotta, and had a specialised terracotta sale in 1857. Approximately seventy terracottas were included in the 1857 auction, and it is likely that the present example was one of these. The malleable clay allowed Fratin a great freedom of texture and expression, which he exploited to the full. A similar terracotta relief was included in The Romantics to Rodin exhibition (op. cit.), and shares with the present example a firmly modelled and finely detailed dramatic scene. The low relief background in the present terracotta creates a more realistic and evocative atmosphere, and the whole stands as a rare work by the hand of this interesting sculptor.