Plaque with the Bad Shepherd

Description An elderly shepherd glances apprehensively over his shoulder as two ragged and hungry wolves slink at his heels, while a third howls in the bushes behind. The inscription on the tablet describes how the old man, unable to protect all of his sheep, threatens to abandon them all. The work represents the early style of the artist, in which the composition was painted in grisaille and then covered with colored translucent enamels.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
7/09/1965	Treatment	other
10/08/1987	Treatment	cleaned; coated; examined for condition

Exhibitions

• Russian Enamels. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996-1997.

Provenance Seligmann, Rey & Co., New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, February 15, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1912