WILLIAM HUGGINS (BRITISH 1820-1884)
A resting Lion
signed and dated W Huggins/1881 (lower right)
pencil and coloured chalks on buff paper
17.5 x 31 cm

Huggins was a member of the Liverpool Academy of Arts. He enjoyed visiting Wombwell's Travelling Menagerie, an animal circus, and the Liverpool Zoological Gardens.
An eccentric individual. He preferred the company of animals, especially chickens, than of his fellow men. He hated travelling through tunnels, and so would get off the train before Liverpool and walk the rest of the way home. His epitaph, which he composed himself, read: 'A just and compassionate man who would neither tread on a worm, nor cringe to an Emperor'.

(Rupert Maas)