The Legend of the Wolves

Rosa Bonheur

National Gallery of Art

This drawing shows a rocky, dark-blue landscape under an overcast night sky. In the center, a person on horseback stands on a tall rock. The person appears human, but they have tall, pointed ears on the top of their head, and their eyes are small points of bright orange. No other details are distinguishable. The horse they sit on stands tall, facing the right. Its mane and tail are blowing in the wind, and small streaks of orange light are coming out of its nostrils, as if it is breathing fire. Surrounding this large boulder, across the rest of the rocky landscape, a pack of dogs runs from the left side of the drawing towards the lower right corner, jumping off a grassy hill. They have upright, pointed ears and thin tails. Many of them have glowing orange eyes and thin lines of orange emerging from their open maws. The sky above is covered with thin gray clouds, and the light from a partially obscured moon illuminates the scene.