The painting depicts a distraught
ewe bleating in grief, her breath freezing in the cold air. The mother sheep is bravely and defiantly standing over the dead body of her lamb, a trickle of blood running from its mouth into the white snow, in a scene reminiscent of a
pietà. The pair of sheep are encircled by a murder of black
crows that crowd menacingly and ominously around under a dull grey cloudy winter sky, waiting for an opportunity to scavenge the carcass. The painting's muted tones – almost monotone shades of white, grey, brown and black – reflect its despairing subject matter. It measures and is signed "Schenck" in the lower left corner. Tedd Got, a senior curator at the National Gallery of Victoria, has suggested that the work may have taken inspiration from the 1872 book
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, in which
Charles Darwin argued emotions have biological originals, and that animals have similar emotions to humans. It has also been interpreted as a commentary on the cruelty of society, represented by the crowd of opportunistic crows. In Anguish, Schenck metaphorically examines a broader human condition in the context of an animal painting; the ewe is given clearly recognisable human characteristics, such as determination and sorrow, so that the viewer immediately identifies with its predicament and emotions, while the sinister murder of crows also appear organised and patiently await a moment of weakness. ==History==