Thomas Landseer (1793/4-1880) was an older brother of the more famous Edwin. He was an engraver, often making prints after his brother's paintings. As a young man Thomas Landseer attended the school run by the artist Benjamin Robert Haydon, which was set up in opposition to the Royal Academy schools. Study of anatomy was a crucially important aspect of Haydon's curriculum, and his students made drawings from dissections and attended classes in anatomy run by the famous surgeon Sir Charles Bell. Human corpses were difficult to obtain at this time, so animal subjects were often dissected instead. This drawing is inscribed 'Bell's', evidence that Landseer made it during one of the anatomy demonstrations given at Bell's premises in Soho, London. It is one of a group of three drawings of an écorché (skinned) dog in the V&A by Thomas Landseer which he made as a young student.