Two Men Tending an Ox

When the dealer Hans Calmann acquired Claude's Animal Album at sale in 1957, it had been kept intact in the Odescalchi family in Rome since at least the eighteenth century. Calmann dismantled the album and sold the 64 sheets individually; this sheet was no. 56 of the album. While most of the drawings in the Animal Album depict animals singly or in small groups, the present sheet is among the twelve that show animals with their attendant herdsmen. Claude observed two men tending an unyoked ox: one man grasps the ox's horn and steadies the animal while the other reaches underneath the animal. Geometrical designs on the verso have bled through the sheet and suggest Claude was experimenting with perspective.