How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This painting was painted especially for the Nature in Art collection. David Shepherd refers to his early life as 'a series of disasters'. While a boy at school it was his ambition to become a game warden in East Africa. When he left Stowe School, he went to Kenya in 1950 'with the arrogant assumption that I was God's gift to the Kenya National Parks'. He was not appointed and came home again with his 'world in ruins'. He then decided that he would somehow pursue his only other interest: art. He applied to the Slade School of Art but was turned down as 'not worth teaching'. By good fortune he met the marine artist Robin Goodwin, who took him on as a full-time student from 1950 to 1953. David attributes all his success to Goodwin. Probably the UK’s best-known living wildlife artist, Shepherd began by painting aviation and train subjects, before a commission by the RAF to paint in Aden and then Nairobi introduced him to the great African landscape and wildlife.