From 1749 until his death in 1788, the Comte de Buffon worked on his monumental Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière, a collection of thirty-six volumes. This vast work not only covers what we now call "natural history," such as the study of animals and plants, but also subjects like physics, chemistry, and mineralogy. Each subject is introduced by a general essay, followed by more specialized articles, all written by Buffon. For example, in his volumes on quadrupeds, Buffon describes both domestic and wild animals, often vividly but sometimes reductively.

Buffon aimed to find "scientific" connections between animals, often blending their individuality. For instance, he described a donkey as "no more than a degenerated horse" and suggested that goats could easily replace sheep in providing meat, milk, wool, and tallow.

Fortunately, the artist Jacques de Sève, whom Buffon chose to illustrate the quadrupeds, captured the individuality of each animal. De Sève’s illustrations, such as his depiction of the Wallachian sheep or Racka, often present animals with soulful expressions, bringing them to life in a way Buffon's descriptions sometimes did not. He also had a fondness for painting bats, often depicting them in odd poses, such as sitting on a mound of turf in the mountains.

The backgrounds in de Sève's work are also fascinating, featuring not only flora and landscapes but often architectural elements that hint at where these animals might reside. In several pieces, animals are set against ruins.

All of de Sève’s illustrations include identifying captions, except for one, listed simply as "l’animal anonyme" (the unidentified animal). Most naturalists later agreed it represented a fennec fox, although some suggested a bat-eared fox. One thing is certain: de Sève had a penchant for drawing large ears.

De Sève’s illustrations, engraved by Louis Le Grand for Buffon’s Histoire, are a true treasure of eighteenth-century naturalism.