August Friedrich Schenck's 'Anguish' at the National Gallery of Victoria: A Masterpiece of Animal Suffering

August Friedrich Schenck's painting Anguish, created around 1878, is housed in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The work depicts a ewe standing over her dead lamb, surrounded by black crows, with blood staining the snow. It was shown at the 1878 Salon and has been in the National Gallery of Victoria's collection since 1880. The composition uses dull tones and the accumulation of crows to create a threatening atmosphere. Schenck, born in 1828 in Glückstadt, Denmark (modern-day Germany), studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and specialized in landscapes and animal distress, particularly sheep. He was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. A related painting, L'Orphelin, souvenir d'Auvergne (c. 1885), is held at the Musée d'Orsay. Dr. Ted Gott, Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Victoria, suggests Charles Darwin's theories on animal emotions influenced the work. Anguish was among the gallery's earliest acquisitions and was voted one of the five most popular paintings in 1906 and again in 2011. It continues to evoke strong emotions.