Shepard, Ernest H. | A drawing from an unrealized project by Ernest Shepard

Shepard, Ernest H.

An original drawing, untitled, for an evidently unrealized version of the cumulative English nursery rhyme, "The Old Woman and her Pig"

Pen and watercolor on (250 x 178 mm, sight) on Winsor & Newton Ltd. Whatman water-colour board), [London, ca. 1957–1966], untitled and unsigned. Matted, framed, and glazed. Inscribed on the back of the frame "By Ernest Shepard" and with a label inscribed "Purchased by ABM."

This drawing seems to illustrate the very beginning of the nursery rhyme (found in a bewildering number of variations): "As she was coming home, she came to a stile. But the piggy wouldn't go over the stile," thus setting up more and more desperate attempts to get the pig over the stile so the old lady can get home that night. Spoiler alert: she does.

For a related pencil drawing, "The old Woman and her Pig: She went a little farther

and met some water," evidently from the same abortive work, see Christie's South Kensington, 13 May 2014, lot 385 (part).

PROVENANCE:

Alastair Bradley Martin — by descent to the present owner