A watercolour of a donkey, seen in profile to the right, standing in a field. Signed.

The French artist Rosa Bonheur was the most celebrated animal painter of her day, with her work popularised by innumerable reproductions. Queen Victoria evinced much interest in her work, buying drawings by her in 1880 and 1900. It is possible that this sketch of a donkey may have been bought in that latter year, when the Queen sent her German secretary, Herr Muther, to the Hanover Gallery at 47 New Bond Street to try to buy "one of three little sketches" from a recent exhibition of Bonheur's work; three of the items in that exhibition depicted donkeys. This watercolour appears in the Osborne Inventory compiled by J. Curry at Queen Victoria's command, which listed pictures acquired after 1876.