The mother sheep is bravely and defiantly standing over the dead body of her lamb, a trickle of blood running from its mouth into the white snow, in a scene reminiscent of a pietà.

[1] The pair of sheep are encircled by a murder of black crows that crowd menacingly and ominously around under a dull grey cloudy winter sky, waiting for an opportunity to scavenge the carcass.

The painting's muted tones – almost monotone shades of white, grey, brown and black – reflect its despairing subject matter.

[2] In Anguish, Schenck metaphorically examines a broader human condition in the context of an animal painting; the ewe is given clearly recognisable human characteristics, such as determination and sorrow, so that the viewer immediately identifies with its predicament and emotions, while the sinister murder of crows also appear organised and patiently await a moment of weakness.

[2] Schenck reversed the scene in his c.1885 painting, L'Orphelin, souvenir d'Auvergne ("The Orphan, memory of Auvergne"), now held by the Musée d'Orsay, in which a lamb stands above the body of its dead mother, before a line of black crows waiting on a wooden fence.