A greyhound by a gothic ruin

A pupil of Gerard van Spaendonck (1746-1822) in the last quarter of the 18th Century, Nicolas Maréchal trained as a history painter, while studying anatomy with Antoine-François Vincent (1746-1816) at the Alfort veterinary school in France. He then studied animals from life on living specimens from the Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, whereas artists had previously studied cadavers. Sixty-six of these animal studies painted in bodycolour on vellum are preserved at the Paris Museum, some of which were engraved in La Ménagerie du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle ou les animaux vivants, published by Etienne de Lacépède, Georges Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (P. Heurtel, M. Lenoir, Les Vélins du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, 2016, p. 78).

This slender dog is shown in a picturesque and lush landscape. A second version of one in the Museum (ibid., p. 421, ill.). The Museum's vellums are generally the same size, larger (32 x 46 cm.) than the present sheet.