August Schenck spent most of his career in France, specialising in painting landscapes and animal subjects. For over thirty years he was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salons, where Anguish was first shown in 1878. In Anguish, Schenck has given the ewe clearly recognisable human characteristics, such as determination and sorrow, so that the viewer immediately identifies with its predicament and emotions. The sinister murder of crows also appear organised and patiently await a moment of weakness. Schenck is here metaphorically examining a broader human condition in the context of an animal painting.