Black chalk on thin woven paper laid down on thicker woven paper, 114 by 174 mm. Inscribed on the verso in black ink: „No 92“ and „Joh. Daniel Meyer war ein großer Meister in Abbild. Von Pflanzen u. Thieren, arbeit. In Nurnberg 1760“ (Joh. Daniel Meyer was very skilled in depicting plants and animals, (he) worked in Nuremberg in1760). Signed in brown ink “Meyer”.

Condition: Laid down on thicker woven paper (most likely in the 18th century). The edges were cut off in order to achieve an octagonal shape. Two smaller horizontal tears.

On this rather small format anatomically very precisely depicted animals are gathered around the melancholic shepherd. The Mediterranean atmosphere, with the scarcely dressed shepherd sitting close to an antique base of a column, shows that Meyer was aware of the pastoral scenes by artists from the Netherlands active in the 17th century, as for example, Nicolaes P. Berchem (1620 – 1683).