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Cornell University Library
Sthaca, New Pork

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

HENRY W. SAGE

1891
University Libra
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“inna
 

PICTURES

BY

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 
 

W FINDEN, SCULPT

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.PINXT

Ms

THE NAUGHTY BO

LONDON. VIRTUE & C9 LIMITED.
PICTURES

BY

STIR EDWIN LANDSEER

ROYAL ACADEMICIAN

WITH DESCRIPTIONS

AND

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PAINTER

BY

JAMES DAFFORNE

LONDON

VIRTUE & CO., LIMITED, 26, IVY LANE,

PATERNOSTER ROW
A
 

 

 

CONTENTS.

PAGE

THE HIGHWAY TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY _. : F ; : ; , 3

THE ASSOCIATE-ACADEMICIAN . : ; > . > : ; ‘ : 8

THE ROYAL ACADEMICIAN . 3 : : . ‘ ' 3 : ; : i

 

LANDSEER A SCULPTOR. . ... . ose . 69
‘Hee: «. 4 «= # &§ & KR &» & Be & ww
APPENDIX.

PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY . .. . 79
PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION . . . «83

LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS . . : : ‘ : ; ‘ . . ‘ 85

 
 

LIST ‘OF PLATES.

ea co
PAGE

1. THE NAUGHTY BOY . ; : 7 i : ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ . Frontispiece.
2. STARTLED! . : . : : ; 3 i : : : 5 ‘ ‘ : 6
3. THE INTRUDER . ‘ : : : j : : ; 5 , & ; : 10
4. THE TWA DOGS . : ‘ : . ‘ ; : : : : : ; ; : 14
5. THE CHIEFTAIN’S FRIENDS . ; : : ‘ : ‘ ‘ ; : : 20
6. THE FRIEND IN SUSPENSE. : ‘ : é : ‘ 3 j 2 : : 22
7. HIGH LIFE . ‘ : ‘ : F i : ; ; : ‘ ‘ : ‘ 24
8. LOW LIFE ; ‘ ; ; ‘ : ; ‘ ; ‘ 4 : ; ‘ : 26
g. HIGHLAND MUSIC. ‘ : ; j i : é , : ‘ j : ; 28
10. DEATH OF THE STAG ‘ : ‘ : : 3 ‘ ; : ‘ : : ‘ 30
11. JACK IN OFFICE ‘ : : ‘ ; i ; ' ‘ F ; ‘ ‘ ‘ 34
iz. THE BREAKFAST-PARTY . j ‘ ‘ & ; : : : ; ‘ : ‘ 38
13. THE SLEEPING BLOODHOUND ; ‘ i 4 ea. : . ; : : 42
14. THE FRIENDS . : : : ; ‘ : ‘ : ‘ ; ; ; ‘ 46
15. MARMOZETTES, OR BRAZILIAN MONKEYS . 3 ‘ : : : : ; ; 48
16. THE CAVALIER’S PETS ‘ , ‘ : , : : ‘ ‘ : ‘ . 5 52
17%, PEACE . : ‘ , : ‘ i : : ‘ 3 : é : ’ : : 56
18, WAR ‘ ; : i j ‘ ‘ ; ‘ ‘ , : : 2 : : ; 58
19. THE STAG AT BAY : : : ‘ j ; : : : ’ : : 62
20. ROUT OF COMUS ; : : : : : : : : ; ; : 66

 
 

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.
 
 

 

 

THE HIGHWAY TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

 

CLOSE examination of the annals of painting from the very earliest record
to the present time, so far as they have been handed down to us, would
fail in producing any one artist who may be put in juxtaposition with Sir
Edwin Landseer. Animal-painters there have been, and are, both in Eng-
land and on the Continent—artists whose works are held in high estima-

tion, and deservedly so; but their pictures want the peculiar charm which is characteristic

of him—the elevation of the animal, and especially of the dog, into something that
closely approximates to human nature in its generous sympathies. It would be difficult
to point to any contemporaneous artist of our own school who, from almost the very
outset of his career, has been so successful in winning the good opinion of the public;
and this may be readily accounted for in the fact that his pictures, independent of
their merits as works of art, appeal to the tastes of thousands of our countrymen and
countrywomen : nationally, we love the race of domestic animals, and are interested in
everything that relates to them, and Landseer has presented them to us in their most
attractive aspects. It was his guod fortune, when quite young, to be freely and
liberally encouraged, and this good fortune never forsook him. A writer some years
ago remarked that, ‘had his earlier claims on the public attention been neglected, the

probability is that, instead of advancing under the cheering auspices of a noble house *

to the eminence he has reached, he would have struggled for a season, retrograded,

and, by degrees, dwindled, like a thousand others, into obscurity.’’ Admitting the-
essential and valuable aid that judicious patronage affords to a young artist, if only
because it serves to encourage him in his labours, and braces him up for renewed

 

 

* An allusion to the then Duke of Bedford.
4 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

efforts, none with such a genius as Landseer’s, and with the power to use it so
originally as he did, could have altogether succumbed to adverse circumstances: he
would set his face resolutely against difficulties and obstacles till he crushed them and
forced his way into public notice. Landseer, happily for himself, was not called upon
to wage this warfare: his art, from the first, accorded with public taste, and, in process
of time, he endued it with such poetical imagination, such truth, feeling, and exquisite
manipulation, that it became irresistible. The path he struck out is one we can scarcely
expect to see followed with anything like equal success, even were it attempted.

Mr. Sandby, in his “History of the Royal Academy,” gives Edwin Henry as the
Christian names of Landseer, but does not state on what authority; and it is difficult
to understand why he so designates him, for the catalogues of the Academy, in
which the list of its members is regularly inserted, give only that by which the painter
has always beeen known; nor have I ever seen the second name in any printed
publication but Mr. Sandby’s. He was born in London, March 7, 1802, and was the
youngest son of John Landseer, an engraver of considerable eminence in his time,
and an Associate of the Academy, who died, in 1852, at a very advanced age—
upwards of ninety years. There was an admirable portrait of the venerable
gentleman, painted by his distinguished son, who modestly called it a ‘sketch,’
in the Academy exhibition of 1848. His two elder sons are, Thomas Landseer,
A.E.R.A., who has engraved so many of his youngest brother’s finest works, and
Charles Landseer, R.A. Thus the three sons have all risen to eminence in their

professions.
In the notice of the death of Sir Edwin Landseer which appeared in the Atheneum
is the following passage :—‘‘ Edwin Landseer’s artistic descent has been traced by

Mr. Stephens in ‘ Early Works of Sir E. Landseer,’ from William Byrne, with whom
Landseer the jeweller ’’—grandfather of Edwin—“ placed his son John ; this Byrne was
a pupil of Aliamet and Wille, Aliamet was a pupil of J. P. Le Bas, who studied under
N. Tardieu; the line of pupilage continues backwards without a flaw through Le
Pautre, Jean Andran, C. Andran, the uncle of Jean, to C. Bloemart, who was appren-
ticed to Crispin de Poess the elder, who had for a master Theodore Cuenhert, born in
1522.’ This art-genealogical roll is, at least, curious. !
Of Edwin’s earliest years very little has been made known, except that from child- |
hood he manifested peculiar inclination for that special branch of art with which his.
name has been so long associated, and which has won for him a reputation over the
wide world second to none of any modern painter. His father very wisely adopted the
best method of cultivating his talents, by accompanying him into the fields and to
Hampstead Heath to sketch the animals of various kinds that frequented the localities;
thus taking him at once to nature for models. The young artist’s instincts led him

towards these dumb creatures, and we may feel assured that he studied their character

 

 

 
IN HAVPDON’S STUDIO. 5

 

and disposition as closely as their anatomical points; hence laying the foundation of ©
those various qualities which so many of his most admired pictures show as examples of
mental development in the animal-world. In the South Kensington Museum may be
seen examples of these very early works; some of them, it is said, done when he was
but five or six years old. At the age of fourteen he entered the schools of the Royal
Academy, though-in the preceding year he had exhibited there “Portrait of a Mule,”’
and ‘Portraits of a Pointer Bitch and Puppy,”’ entered in the catalogue as “‘ by Master
E. Landseer, 33, Foley Street:’’ he also supplied, about the same time, similar subjects
for the Sporting Magazine, which were engraved by his brother Thomas. The Elgin
Marbles, then at Burlington House, but now in the British Museum, were carefully
studied by Edwin at this period of his life.

In the same year, 1815, he had studied under that most unfortunate painter, B. R.
Haydon, or, perhaps, it should rather be said, the latter advised him as to his work. In
Haydon’s Autobiography he says :—

“Tn 1815, Mr. Landseer, the engraver, had brought his boys to me, and said, ‘ When do
you let your beard grow, and take pupils?’ I said, ‘If my instructions are useful or valuable,
now.’ ‘Will you let my boys come?’ I said, ‘Certainly.’ Charles and Thomas, it was
immediately arranged, should come every Monday, when I was to give them work for the /
week. Edwin took my dissections of the lion, and I advised him to dissect animals—the only /
mode of acquiring their construction, as I had dissected men, and as I should make his brothers
do. This very incident generated in me the desire to form a school; and as the Landseers
made rapid progress, I resolved to communicate my system to other young men, and endeavour
to establish a better and more regular system of instruction than even the Academy afforded.”

In Haydon’s Diary under the date June 1, 1831, is the following entry :—

“Since I last wrote, poor Jackson is gone.* A more amiable, inoffensive man never lived.
He had a fine eye for colour, but not vast power, and could not paint women. He is the first
of the three to go.t God protect him. It is curious what a set came in together under Fuseli :+
—Wilkie, Mulready, Collins, Pickersgill, Jackson, Etty, Hilton, and myself. I have produced
Landseer, Eastlake, Lance, and Harvey ; Wilkie, the whole domestic school.”

As an example of the young student’s power of drawing animals, the engraving,
“Startled!’’ here introduced will serve. The plate bears in the imprint a date, which,
however, cannot be actually verified; and I am inclined to think the original sketch, for
it is little more, must have been made previously to 1819. In the composition the horse
is made the chief, indeed, the only point of attraction ; but one sees in it not merely the

 

* John Jackson, R.A., one of the best portrait-painters of his time. Haydon scarcely does him justice,

for his male portraits are remarkably vigorous.
+ The other two were Wilkie and himself: the trio formed a friendship when students at the Academy.

+ Fuseli was then Keeper of the Academy.
6 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

germ of that talent which, for more than half a century, has been productive of such
valuable and attractive fruits, but how soon in his career Landseer began to give some
feature of character to his animal-world beyond mere portraiture. Grazing in a
meadow, the horse has come suddenly upon a snake, which rears its head at him.
_ With instinctive fear of the reptile the former starts and stops, involuntarily raising
“one of his fore-legs; his mane hangs wildly, and his eyes are fixed on the snake as if
fascinated. The action is quite truthful; and, if exception be taken to some parts of
the drawing, which are certainly defective, it must be remembered that the picture
is the work of a juvenile hand.

In 1818, Landseer exhibited at the Gallery of the Society of Painters in Oil and
Water Colours, in Spring Gardens, a picture, ‘‘ Fighting Dogs getting Wind,” which
attracted much notice, and found a purchaser in Sir George Beaumont, an acknow-
ledged art-connoisseur and patron. This work having been engraved by the painter’s
father, made the young artist’s name widely known. The year following there appeared
at the British Institution a far more important work, ‘“‘ Dogs of Mount St. Gothard
discovering a Traveller in the Snow;”’ this also was engraved by the elder Landseer.
It was in the possession of the late Mr. Gillott, of Birmingham. When his collection
was sold last year, it realised the sum of 1,740 guineas, Mr. Addington being the
purchaser. “ Pointers, so ho!’’ exhibited at the British Institution in 1821, was in the

_ same sale, and became the property of Messrs. Agnew for 1,900 guineas. Acting
| upon Haydon’s suggestions, he took advantage, in 1820, of the death of a lion at a
| menagerie in London, to study the anatomy of the animal, and subsequently painted
several pictures of the ‘‘ king of beasts;’’ as “‘ A Lion Disturbed,’’ ‘A Lion Repos-
ing,’’ ‘A Lion Prowling,’’ &c. One of this class of works, ‘‘ A Dead Lion,’ was a
few years since in the collection of Mr. William Russell, of Chesham Place, who was
also the owner of another picture by the same hand, representing a dog with dead
game and a white hare beside it.

During the next three or four years Landseer exhibited at the Academy portraits of
favourite dogs, and ‘Taking a Buck.’’ His ‘Larder Invaded,’’ sent to the British
Institution in 1822, gained from the Directors their prize of £150. He had also found
a warm friend and patron in the Duke of Bedford, of whose son, the young Lord
Cosmo Russell, he painted a portrait, which was exhibited in 1825: the boy is repre-
sented galloping a Highland pony in a hilly tract of country. At the sale, in 1860,
of a portion of the collection of the late Mr. Wells, of Redleaf, a picture called “ Lord
Alexander Russell’on a Highland Pony,’’ was sold for 825 guineas. It may be
presumed that this was also painted for the duke, but how it came into the hands of
Mr. Wells I have no knowledge. Small lithographic prints of both, by the late
R. J. Lane, A.R.A., were published in 1832.

In 1825 or 1826 Landseer paid his first visit to the Highlands of Scotland ; from this
 

 
Ca LINrT oo? ANLAIA NOGNO'T

iC@MILWUVLS

adTNOs ‘SIMAT'O “6ISTETAUA VU 'UPASANVI NIMGH wis

 

 

 

 
CHEVY CHACE. 7

 

‘period dates the series of pictures associated with that portion of the kingdom. Here
he soon found admirers and friends in many of the nobles and country-gentlemen whose
_ estates supplied him with subjects for his pencil in the mountains and glens tenanted
_ by deer-herds. The first of these works was “‘ The Hunting of Chevy Chace.’ It was
' exhibited at the Academy in 1826; the catalogue showed it to have been suggested
by a verse of the old ballad Chevy Chace :-—

‘“To drive the deere with hound and horne,
Erle Percy took his way ;
The chiefest harts in Chevy Chace,
To kill and beare away.”

This picture, which hangs at Woburn Abbey, the seat of the Duke of Bedford, gained
for its painter admission into the ranks of Associates of the Royal Academy at the
earliest age, twenty-four, when, by the laws of the institution, a candidate for honours
can be admitted. In the duke’s collection is also “‘ Stags in the Park at Woburn.”’

It is not without interest to look back to the list of artists who at that period
formed the academical body, only one of whom, Mr. H. W. Pickersgill, survives to
remember the election of Landseer. Among these were not a few of whom we
now hear little or nothing, and whose works have left scarcely any impression on the
art of the country ; but in the number of Academicians were Beechey, Callcott, Chantrey,
Collins, the brothers Daniell, Flaxman, Hilton, Jackson, Lawrence—the President
—Leslie, Mulready, Northcote, H. W. Pickersgill, Shee, R. Smirke, Stothard,
Soane, Turner, Wilkie, James Ward, Westmacott ; and among the Associates were
Washington Allston, Constable, Etty, Danby, W. Allan, and Briggs. These were the
men—painters, sculptors, and architects—who, nearly half a century ago, were the
leaders of the British School of Art in their respective departments.

 
 

 

 

 

 

THE ASSOCIATE-ACADEMICIAN.

 

N 1827 Landseer exhibited at the Academy five pictures, of which the
principal were ‘‘Highianders Returning from Deerstalking with
Dead Game,”’ and ‘‘ The Monkey who had seen the World.” Of
the former of these subjects the artist painted more than one or
two, but at this distant date it is difficult to identify them with the
period of exhibition; yet I believe this early example is that which was painted for the
late Mr. Wells, of Redleaf, and afterwards was in the possession of the late Mr. Fallows,
of Marichester, whose collection was sold in 1868, when the “Deer Stalkers’? was
bought by Messrs. Agnew for 1,680 guineas. A large engraving of it, by Ryall, was
published many years ago by the Art-Union of Glasgow; it represents two stalwart
Highlanders returning from their sport, with two ponies, a white one and a brown,
across whose backs dead deer are slung. On one side of the men is a single dog, and
on the other a couple of these animals leashed together, and eyeing very intently the
skull of a dead stag which lies by the wayside. The landscape is a mountainous
district, half shrouded in mist. The other picture is in the collection of Mr. Thomas
Baring. It is a most humorous composition; the travelled monkey wears the costume
of the early part of the last century, his coat being scarlet; and in this gorgeous dress
he makes an appearance before his wild brethren of the forest, to one of which he offers
a pinch out of his snuff-box, which is accepted, to the discomfiture of the recipient and
the amazement of his companions.

{n the same year the artist sent to the exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy a
picture which, from the appended quotation, I assume had for its title ‘‘ The Death of the
Buck.” In that inimitable series of imaginary colloquies called ‘“‘Noctes Ambrosianz,”’
by Protessor John Wilson, published many years ago, and which gave to Blackwood’s

  

 

 

 
LIHE ILLICIT WHISK¥-STILL. 9

M©agazine such wide popularity, I find the following remarks; they appeared in the
magazine for March, 1827. Those who have never read the “ Noctes’’ must understand
that the speakers are presumed to be Wilson himself, under his nom-de-plume of
Christopher North, and James Hogg, the popular Scotch poet and writer, under the
name of the ‘“‘ Shepherd ’’— at one time his occupation :—

“Shepherd... . . What think you o’ the Death o’ the Buck, by that Southron, Edwin
Landseer? Never saw I bloodthirsty fierceness better depicted than in the muzzles o’ thae
ferocious Jowlers. Lord preserve us! was that the way, think ye, that the Spanish bloodhounds
used to rug doun the Maroons in the West Indies?

“North, There is a leetle, and but a leetle, something, resembling affectation in the manner
of the Huntsmen.

“ Shepherd. Come, sir, nane o’ your captious criticism. That black dog, wi’ the red legs,
and chafts * and eebrees,; is equal to anything that was ever painted in this world; and that
white deevil . . . . hinging to the Buck’s lug,t with teeth inextricable as arsenic to the
coat of the stomach, is a canine leech, that if no chocked aff frae the bite, would soon let out
the animal’s life, and stretch him with his spreading antlers on the heather.

“‘ North. Heather, James ?—there is no heather in the picture. The scene is not peculiarly
Highland—and therefore I do not feel the bonnet and tartan of the Hunter.

“ Shepherd. I saw naething to fin’ fault wi’—you see it’s no a red deer—but a fallow deer—
frae the spots;—and the Park, as they ca’t, ‘ll be somewhere perhaps on the borders o’ the
mountainous pairts o’ Perthshire or Argyllshire ;—or wha kens that the scene’s no English—
and that the painter has gien the hunter something o’ the dress o’ a Highlander, frae an
imaginary feeling but half-understood by his ain mind, as maist imaginative feelings are, but
nane the waur on that account either for paintin’ or poetry.”

In 1828 Landseer exhibited two paintings; one, ‘‘A Portrait of a Terrier,” the other
“A Scene in the Highlands, with Portraits of the Duchess of Bedford, the Duke of
Gordon, and Lord Alexander Russell.”? It was painted for the late Duke of Gordon,
and how it got out of the possession of his grace’s family I know not; but it found its
way into that of the late Mr. T. Agnew, of Manchester, and after his death was
sold by Messrs. Christie, in May, 1871, for the sum of £1,333, the purchaser being
Mr. Ward. Two other pictures, painted in 1825, for the duke, were sold with it,
‘A Shooting-Pony,’’ and ‘‘ A Favourite Hack,”’ forf157 each. His principal picture
in 1829 was ‘An Illicit Whisky-Still in the Highlands,” purchased by, or painted
for, the late Duke of Wellington, and subsequently engraved by R. Graves. The
scene is a Highland hut formed of the mountain-pine, and roofed with shingle and
heather. A sportsman is tasting the new-made spirit as he half reclines on the deer
he has slain; dogs of various breeds and sizes lie around him; and an old woman,
painted with marvellous skill and power, is somewhat earnestly waiting his opinion of
the whisky. In the background is the swarthy distiller, standing beside the fire, over
which is a boiling cauldron, whence the ‘‘worm”’ extends along the floor of the rude

 

* Jaws. t Eyebrows. } Ear.
D
10 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

manufactory. A boy in the foreground holds a telescope, and carries in the other hand
a moorland-bird: scattered about are the various materials for the unlawful work in
progress, with a number of other objects—still-life, &c. The painter has omitted
nothing needful to such a scene, and evidently laboured to portray the most minute
details no less than the grander features of the composition. The very sprigs of
heather and the plumage of the birds received as much attention as the faces of the
figures. Were there nothing more in the picture than what has just been described, it
would have lacked, however admirable as a true transcript of fact and nature, some-
thing to make it valuable to all classes. A touching episode is, therefore, introduced :
a ragged and shoeless young girl looks on the busy group with a sad face, for she
has no sympathy with her associates; she leans back and gazes, not wistfully nor
even thoughtfully, but with an instinctive foreboding of evil to come. This is the
moral. The little maid is of great beauty, with an expression of loveliness and sadness
mingled, perfectly in unison. The whole arrangement of the picture, the composition,
and the execution, are admirable.

“Canine Attachment,’’ exhibited in 1830, represents a very affecting incident,
referred to in the catalogue when the picture appeared. ‘In the spring of 1803, a
young gentleman of talent, and most amiable disposition, perished by falling from a
precipice of the mountain Helvellyn. His remains were not discovered till three
months afterwards, when they were found guarded by the faithful terrier.

“ «How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber?
How many long days and long nights didst thou number:
Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart ?’”
SCOTT.

This picture was bought, when exhibited, by the late Mr. E.R. Tunno, of Wainford
Park, Hampshire; and was sold, in 1863, at Christie’s, for the sum of 1,010 guineas ;
and again, in 1870, at the sale of the collection of the late Mr. -W. Delafield, of
Knightsbridge, for 550 guineas: bought by Messrs. Agnew.

Before proceeding to notice his subsequent works, mention must be made, though
out of chronological order, of two or three of his earlier pictures; for example,
“The Dog and the Shadow,”’ painted in 1822, now in the Sheepshanks collection ;
‘Sancho Panza and Dapple,’”’ of the date 1824, also in the same collection. ‘The
Intruder,” of which an engraving is given here, is yet earlier than these. It was
painted in the year 1818, and was purchased by the then Sir O. de Malpas Grey
Egerton, in whose collection, or rather, in that of his descendants, the picture, I
presume, still is. Though the work of a mere youth, it has the spirit of a matured
designer, and is painted with a firm yet delicate touch. The dog and the cat eye each
other with anything but amicable feelings, as if disposed to contend for the body of
the rat
THE INTRUDER

aYfYOO2
’ CHLINIT 60-8 MNIHIA' NOUUON

“UA COULNI WA

i£dTN0S ‘HLIMMIad A 2 aXNId VU’ UAASACNvI NIMGA IS

 
 

 

 

 

 

THE ROYAL ACADEMICIAN.

 

N 1831 Landseer, now an Academician, exhibited five pictures in the
gallery of the Society: ‘ Interior of a Highlander’s House,”
“ Poachers Deer-stalking,’ ‘‘ Little Red Riding-hood,” ‘ The
Poacher’s Bothy,’? and ‘ Poacher and Red Deer.’ “ Little Red
Riding-hood”’ is a gem : the well-known story of childhood was never
more beautifully illustrated. ‘‘ The Pets,’’ sent to the Academy in the following year,
with “‘ Hawking,’”? would make an excellent companion to ‘Red Riding-hood.” It
represents a little girl greeting a favourite fawn in a woody pathway. The com
position is very elegant. ‘‘ Hawking” is a large picture, and is now in the possession,
I believe, of Mr. Mendel, of Cressbrook, Derbyshire.

In 1833 he exhibited three very attractive pictures: ‘Jack in Office,’’ ‘‘ Deer
and Hounds in a Torrent,” to both of which reference will be made hereafter; and
“Sir Walter Scott,’ among his favourite dogs. Sir Walter is seated at the bottom of
the ‘“‘Rhymer’s Glen,” so called from having been the scene of the meetings between
Thomas of Erceldoune, the ‘‘ Rhymer,’’ and the Fairy Queen, as described in the
ballad of “‘Thomas the Rhymer”’ in the A@instrelsy of the Scottish Border. Scott's
canine companions are ‘Maida,’ a stag-hound, presented to him by Glengarry;
“Ginger,” a yellow terrier; and “Spice,” a black terrier; both descended “of
Dandie Dinmont’s family of ‘‘ Pepper’”’ and ‘‘ Mustard.”

There was another picture in the gallery of the Academy which must not be passed
over, though Landseer was but a sharer in the honour of its production : still his share
was a large one. “Harvest in the Highlands’? was the joint work of Sir A. W.
Callcott and Landseer; the former painting the landscape, and the latter the figures
and animals. It passed into the hands of Mr. S. Cartwright, F.R.S., who permitted

 

 
12 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. R.A.

 

the Art-Union of London to engrave it for their subscribers, to whom the print,
excellently engraved by the late J. T. Willmore, A.R.A., was presented in 1856.
More than one eminent publisher had applied to its owner for liberty to engrave the
work, and had offered a very large sum for the privilege. Mr. Cartwright, however,
resolutely declined all requests, keeping his treasure at his mansion near Tunbridge
for many years; but at length granted to a society, whose object is to create a love of
art among the thousands, what was refused to private speculations. I mention
these facts to show the opinion of this beautiful picture by those capable of understand-
ing and valuing its merits. Although it is now tolerably well-known, a few words of
description may not be out of place here. From the left of the composition a
lofty range of mountains stretches away into the extreme distance: a considerable
portion of this high ground is concealed by clouds and vapours, for a heavy shower
has passed over the distant landscape, now in deep shadow, except where a rain-
bow appears to spring from the horizon: the long level plain between this and the
foreground is more or less lighted up with gleams of sunshine. In the foreground,
on the left, and leading into the centre of the sunshine, is the corn, partly in sheaves
and partly standing; nor does it seem that the owner of the produce is over-anxious
to have the crop garnered, for the labourers are few,—perhaps they are scarce in
those regions—one elderly woman, with a kind of rake in her hand, and a young girl
holding a sickle, and bearing a small sheaf under her arm; the lass is conversing with
a number of boys, one of whom restrains a collie-dog whose attention is directed to a
group of deer-stalkers coming up from the distance, laden with their spoils. Between
the old woman and the children is a cart laden with corn; it is drawn by a
rough-looking animal with a foal by its side; and to the right of the group, among a
mass of granite-boulders, are a calf tethered, and a goat with its kids. It is altogether
a most picturesque scene, every passage of which shows masterly yet, delicate execu-
tion. The drawing, in water-colours, made by Woodman for the use of the engraver
of the picture, was sold, in 1866, with the collection of the late Mr. R. H. Grundy, of
Liverpool, for 130 guineas.

‘Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time”’ was his principal contribution to the Academy
exhibition of the following year; and perhaps no picture Landseer ever produced has
proved so universally popular and is so widely known, for it has been multiplied by
engravings large and small; the principal one being that by Mr. S. Cousins, R.A.,
published three or four years after the appearance of the picture, and of which proof
impressions are now very rare and valuable. The original painting is in the possession
of the Duke of Devonshire, to whom the ruins of the grand old abbey, or rather priory,
belong, with the manor on which they stand. Landseer has only introduced the entrance
gateway of the edifice, as it may be supposed to have presented itself four or five cen-
turies ago, when the monastic institution was flourishing in full vigour, and its ‘‘ reverend
BOLTON ABBEY IN THE OLDEN TIME. 13

 

and grave’’ inmates wandered by the sides of the “‘ crystal Wharfe,’’ and counted their
beads under the shadows of rock and noble trees. The principal figure in the
composition we may assume to be a superior brother of the abbey, perhaps the prior
himself, a burly, well-conditioned ecclesiastic, who is evidently more accustomed to
feast than to fast. He is reading a letter which has accompanied a present of fish and
game from some devoted son of the Church, anxious to stand well with his spiritual
advisers. The other figures are a young girl bearing a dish of fine trout; a youth
carrying pheasants and other birds; and a stout retainer stooping over a fat buck; all
of which will soon be consigned to the monastic buttery for the refreshing of the brother-
hood. The various materials of the composition are simply arranged; each figure
stands well and prominently in its place, yet is brought into union with its companions
by accessories in a manner most felicitous; the artist seems to nave been prodigal of
his powers in the delineation of the numerous specimens of still-life with which the
picture abounds; while it vividly carries the mind back to those olden times when
devotion to the Church was considered to be the duty of noble and peasant alike.
Another picture of that year is “A Highland Breakfast,’’ now in the Sheepshanks
Collection at South Kensington. It shows the interior of a Shepherd’s cottage, in
which is a young mother feeding her child, whom she takes out of its cradle. Ona
low stool before her is a dish of porridge, and in the background is an oaten cake
toasting on the girdle. Several dogs are taking their breakfast from a large bowl of
skimmed milk and meal; among them, a lank sheep-dog, suckling three fat puppies.
A third picture of 1834 at the Academy was “A Collie-dog rescuing a Sheep.” To
the British Institution were contributed the same year ‘‘ The Eagle’s Nest,’’ also in
the Sheepshanks Collection; and another, of which mention will be made hereafter.
The most important painting by Landseer which, through the liberality of Mr.
Sheepshanks, has become the property of the nation, and is now at South Kensington,
is «The Drovers’ Departure—a Scene in the Grampians,”’ exhibited at the Academy
in 1835, and engraved on a scale commensurate with the size of the canvas, by Mr. J. H.
Watt, who was engaged four years on the plate—one of the finest examples of line-
engraving, of its class, that has been produced within our time in this country. The
composition, which is, perhaps, best known by another title, given to it by the
publishers of the print, ‘‘ Highland Drovers departing for the South,” consists of a
remarkably striking foreground-group in direct relation with a landscape-background;
the whole presented under the effect of a clear early morning. There is no interior,
yet the home of the departing herdsmen is sufficiently made out. Home is clearly the
first chapter of the story; departure is the next; and the conclusion of the well-told
tale is—absence. It is one of those works which can afford to dispense with the title
given to it by the painter—that which is first stated above—for every circumstance of
the composition speaks of the ‘‘ departure.” The group of figures comprehends every
E
14 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

stage of human life from infancy to extreme old age. The artist has shown himself a
keen observer of the habits of the people whom he here painted, as is evinced by the
occupation in which he has busied the presiding matron—that of filling the flagon of
one of the wayfarers with the accustomed ‘“ mountain-dew.’’ The eye rests upon the
stalwart figure of a drover, whose bulk of thew and muscle is, in appearance, aug-
mented by the national plaid he bears so stoutly athwart him: he is a donnze sample of
the neatherd of the North, who so generally excites the wonder of the Southron far within
the border-counties. The athletic mould of this man contrasts forcibly with the wasted
and feeble grandsire, sitting absorbed in the enjoyment of his pipe, and unmoved by
the bustle around him; perhaps recalling the days when he set forth on similar expedi-
tions, and not unthankful that his wearisome pilgrimages have drawn to a close.
Nothing in the way of painting can surpass the truth and reality of this aged man,
whose eye the lustre of youth has forsaken, and to whose once active limbs an
unusually protracted life has brought its inevitable rigidity. The morn, tnough clear,
is chill; so a careful daughter of the c/achan is covering the shoulders of the old man,
whom it becomes not to be within the cabin upon the momentous occasion of a
departure with the herds. There is not a single incident in the whole composition
which does not help to develop the story, from the sturdy “‘topsman,”’ who kisses his
infant-child, to the ruffled hen defending her brood from the mischievous gambols of a
young puppy. In the distance the ‘lowing herds’’ are already on the move, and the
eye. is carried into the fading distance of the Grampian range by the extended wavy
line of black cattle wending their way to be taken in exchange’ for English gold. In
front of the cottage the last group of cattle and a stout pony divide the interest of the
spectator with the men, women, and children, who have ‘“ forgathered’’ in associa-
tion; among these will be noticed a young drover and his affianced lassie, seated a
little apart from the rest, and exchanging words of endearance that must serve each to
live upon for some weeks at least. A more inviting picture than this never passed
from Landseer’s studio into the hands of a collector.

At a sale of pictures in 1868, by Messrs. Christie and Co., was one entitled,
‘Rachel reading,’ by Landseer, and said to have been painted in the year 1835; but
I cannot find that such a work was ever exhibited: it sold for 190 guineas. This work
I presume to be the same as that in the late Mr. Gillott’s collection, where it was called
‘‘ Lady Rachel Russell in the Act of Reading:’’ Messrs. Agnew bought it for the sum
of 285 guineas.

In the Sheepshanks Collection is the ‘ Twa Dogs,” of which an engraving is intro-
duced here. It is an early example of the artist’s pencil, having been painted in 1822.
The picture illustrates Burns’s poetical fable, bearing the same title, in which he
describes two dogs conversing about men and their manners. The animals are named
respectively Cesar and Luath: the latter, a collie-dog, belonged to the poet, and was
 

THE TWA DOGS

 
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CHAS G. LEWIS, SCULPT

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.PINXT

THE TWA DOGS.

LONDON, VIRTUE &C°? LIMITED
THE TWA DOGS. 15

 

unfortunately killed by some one; Cesar, a Newfoundland, was merely a creature of
Burns’s imagination. The poem opens with a description of each, as they sit down to
a discussion on their respective masters, and their masters’ homes :—

“‘ Twas in that place o’ Scotland’s isle
That bears the name o’ auld King Coll,
Upon a bonnie day in June,

When wearing thro’ the afternoon,
Twa dogs that were na thrang at hame,
Forgathered once upon a time.

“The first I name, they ca’d him Cesar,
Was keepit for his honour’s pleasure ;
His air, his size, his mouth, his lugs,!
Show’d he was nane o’ Scotland’s dogs,
But whalpit ? some place far abroad,
Where sailors gang to fish for cod.

“ His locked, letter’d, braw brass collar
Show’d him the gentleman and scholar ;
But tho’ he was o’ high degree,

The feint a pride—nae pride had he;

But wad hae spent an hour caressin’,
E’en wi’ a tinkler—gipsey’s messin’.

At kirk or market, mill or smiddie,*

Nae tawked tyke,> though ere so duddie,°
But he wad stan’t, as glad to see him.

* * * *

“The tither was a ploughman’s collie,
A rhyming, ranting, raving billie,”
Wha for his friend an’ comrade had him,
And in his freaks had Luath ca’d him,
After some dog in Highland lang,®
Was made lang syne. ~  ¢

“ He was a gash ® an’ faithful tyke,
As ever lap a sleugh ” or dyke;
His honest, sonsie,!! baws’nt ¥ face,
Ay gat him friend in ilka place.

 

! Bars. 7 Fellow. Burns evidently alludes here to himself.
2 Whelped, or born. 8 Cuchullin’s dog in Ossian’s /ingad.

5 A little dog. | ® Wise, sagacious.

4 A smith’s forge. © Ditch.

5 Tawked tyke. A dog with matted hair. Jolly.

* Ragged. ” Having a white stripe down the face.
~

16 SIR EDWIN. LANDSEER, R.A:

 

His breast was white, his touzie ! back,
Weel clad wi’ coat o’ glossy black ;

His gaucie* tail, wi’ upward curl,
Hung o’er his hurdies © wi’ a swirl.

“Nae doubt but they were fain o’ ither,

An’ unco pack an’ thick thegither ;

Wi?’ social nose whyles snuffd an’ snowkit,!®
‘Whiles mice and moudieworts " they howkit.
Whiles scour’d awa in lang excursion,

An’ worry’d ither in diversion ;

Until wi’ daffin * weary grown,

Upon a knowe ® they sat them down,

And there began a lang digression

About the lords o’ the creation.”

Burns’s inimitably humorous poem need not to be further quoted; but thus much
seemed necessary to describe the animals sitting in judgment on the “lords o’ the
creation,’ and which the artist has represented with such truth and spirit. The
debate, if it may be so called, has become lively ; the head of each dog shows remark-
able animation as they warm up in the discussion—one, as the rest of the poem
shows, in no way complimentary to those who are the subjects of this canine debate,
but who are not “‘ in court” to justify themselves either in person or by counsel.

The principal contributions to the Academy in 1836 were ‘“*A Scene in Chil-
lingham Park,”’ with a group of the famous wild cattle found there; a portrait of
the Marchioness of Abercorn in a masquerade dress, entitled ‘‘ Twelfth Night, or,
What you will’’—a picture which was engraved very finely by Mr. J. H. Robinson ;
and “Portraits of Ladies Harriet and Beatrice Hamilton,”’ children of the Marquis
and Marchioness of Abercorn. In these, as in almost every portrait-picture by
Landseer, we find the usual accompaniments of horses, or dogs, or both.

In the year following he sent to the Academy as many works as the rules
of the institution permit any artist to exhibit in one year—namely, eight. Of
these was one which, for poetic feeling and for pathos, must always take precedence
of any Landseer ever placed on canvas. This is ‘“‘The Old Shepherd’s Chief
Mourner,’’ now in the Sheepshanks Collection, and I know of nothing in the
whole range of Art, whatever its character, more simply yet more deeply
affecting, though a single dog is the only living creature that is visible. The
picture is small in size, but immeasurably great in conception. The scene is the
interior of a Highland shepherd’s hut, for it can scarcely be called a cottage

 

8 Shaggy. " Moles,
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THE OLD SHEPHERD'S CHIEF MOURNER. 17

Resting on some roughly-hewn pieces of wood, serving as trestles, is a heavy coffin,
also roughly put together, and of very primitive manufacture, whereon some
friendly hand has placed branches of laurel: over it, and trailing on the floor,
is stretched a thick plaid shawl, which has helped to screen its late owner
from many a pitiless storm of rain and snow, and a heavy blanket; the latter
intended to take the place of a pall. Seated on this blanket, which appears to
have been partially dragged off, carrying with it some of the laurel-branches, is
the ‘‘ Chief Mourner’’ of the dead man whose body waits to be carried away to its
last resting-place. It is the collie-dog of the “Old Shepherd ;”’ for years the friend
and companion of his master through summer-heat and winter cold; the creature
which has walked by his. side, or kept watch and ward for him by day and by
night; which followed him up the mountain-side and by the sparkling burn as he
tended the flocks, and oft-times restored with unfailing Sagacity the wanderers from
the fold. The devoted animal knows well what that coffin contains; we may be
certain he never quitted the death-bed of his master, and that he will never leave
his grave. Even there :

“ Fis faithful dog will bear him company ;”

ay, and lie down and die on the grassy mound that covers the sleeping shepherd.
With his nose firmly resting on the coffin-lid, what a picture of real, almost human,
grief does he present to us! his attitude and his countenance are as indicative of bitter
sorrow and of anguish as imagination can suggest. All the accessories of the
composition, moreover, are in perfect harmony with its leading features, and aid
powerfully in sustaining them, and to complete the idea of death and desolation—
the low settle, or stool, on which are the shepherd’s spectacles, and Bible clasped
for the last time by his own hands; on the floor are his bonnet and walking-stick,
both laid aside for ever; the empty drinking-horn, the vacant chair, the dim twilight,
are each and all passages, eloquent and truthful, of an exquisitely beautiful and
touching poem on canvas, which, it cannot be doubted, has caused many a stout
heart to “‘ play the woman,”’ by moving it to tears.*

 

* Some considerable time after this was written, I chanced to meet with Mr. Ruskin’s comments cn the
picture ; they are subjoined, and are occasionally expressive of ideas so similar to my own, that I might
justly be charged with plagiarism without this explanation. The professor’s eloquent analysis of the merits of
the painting speaks for itself. Writing of “Greatness in Art,” he says,—“ Take, for instance, one of the
most perfect poems or pictures (I use the words as synonymous) which modem times have seen—the ‘ Old
Shepherd's Chief Mourner.’ Here the exquisite execution of the glossy and crisp hair of the dog, the bright
sharp touching of the green bough beside it, the clear painting of the wood of the coffin, and the folds of the
blanket are language—language clear and expressive in the highest degree. But the close pressure of the
dog’s breast against the wood, the convulsive clinging of the paws, which has dragged the blanket off
the trestle, the total powerlessness of the head, laid, close and motionless, upon its folds, the fixed and tearful

F
18 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

Two other important pictures of the same year were entitled respectively ‘‘ The
Highlands,”’ and “ Return from Hawking.” ;

The year 1838 produced several most excellent works; ‘‘ The Life’s in the Old
Dog yet,” representing a fine hound which has fallen down a rocky precipice, where
he is found by its owner: it is a large picture, admirably painted throughout.
Another was “ Portraits of the Marquis of Stafford and the Lady Evelyn Gower —
Dunrobin Castle in the distance.” The two children appear under the shadow of a
noble tree in the park of Dunrobin, the seat of their father, the Duke of Sutherland.
Lady Evelyn is petting a favourite fawn, and her little lap-dog is evidently jealous
of the caresses bestowed upon the gentle creature. In the rear of this group is a
magnificent hound, looking, like his small canine companion, somewhat annoyed at the
preference shown to the fawn. The picture, which is in the Duke’s collection at
Stafford House, is engraved by Mr. S. Cousins. ‘‘ None but the Brave deserve the Fair,”’
is the title of a third picture of the year; it shows a stately stag in the midst of
a herd of deer. Another was ‘‘ A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society ;’’—
so well-known by the engraving—a noble Newfoundland dog lying with his fore-feet
over the stonework of a pier, as if on the look-out for an opportunity of saving some
life from the peril of drowning. And yet one more, “ Portraits of the Queen’s
favourite Dogs and Parrot,’’ also engraved.

‘‘The Naughty Boy,’’ of which an engraving is here introduced, was exhibited
at the British Institution in 1834, and is now in the Sheepshanks Collection. There
is a story associated with the origin of this serio-comic picture: it is this. A lady
having brought her son to the artist to have his portrait painted, the boy became
unruly, sulked, and refused to remain in the position in which he had been placed
for the operation; whereupon his mother, after striving in vain to command
obedience, put the recusant into the corner of the room as a punishment. Here his
resolute air, and sturdy, rebellious attitude so struck Landseer, that he sketched
him on the spot, and subsequently painted the picture as it now is; retaining the
features, &c., of the refractory model, but putting him into a dress somewhat more
characteristic of a ‘‘naughty boy,’ and supplementing him with such appropriate
emblems of idleness and perversity of temper as a broken slate, and a book lying
on a form with its cover turned upwards. The painter’s idea was evidently to
represent a boy idle and contumacious in the school-room.

 

' fall of the eye in its utter hopelessness, the rigidity of repose which marks that there has been no motion nor
change in the trance of agony since the last blow was struck on the coffin-lid ; the quietness and gloom of the
chamber, the spectacles marking the place where the Bible was last closed, indicating how lonely has been the
life—how unwatched the departure of him who is now laid solitary in his sleep ;—these are all thoughts—
thoughts by which the picture is separated at once from hundreds of equal-merit, as far as mere painting goes,
by which it ranks as a work of high merit, and stamps its author, not as the neat imitator of the texture of a
skin, or the fold of a drapery, but as the Man of Mind."—MModern Painters, vol. i. p. 8.
DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE. 19

 

To the exhibition at the British Institution in 1839 Landseer contributed a picture
then simply called ‘‘ Two Dogs,”’ but which has long since become well-known by the
appropriate title of ‘Dignity and Impudence.’’ It shows in a striking manner the power
of contrast, though we see little more than the heads of the animals peering out of the
front of the kennel. One is that of a splendid old bloodhound of the Duke of Grafton’s
breed, which has flung its paw, massive and strong, across the ledge of the doorway
It is impossible to imagine anything finer than the perfect repose and dignity of the
magnificent creature, which does not condescend to notice a small white Scotch terrier
that has had the audacity to venture into the abode of his gigantic companion, and,
placing himself by his side, peers out of the opening with brilliant restless eyes, as if
on the watch to spring upon anything that comes within reach. In ordinary hands
the subject would have been commonplace and comparatively insignificant; but the
genius of the artist has elevated it into a work of great interest. The picture was
painted for the late Mr. Jacob Bell, who bequeathed it to the nation; and it is now
in Trafalgar Square. An exquisite little cabinet-picture, ‘‘ A Milkmaid and Cow,”
also hung in the British Institution at the same time.

In the Academy exhibition of that year Landseer showed seven works, among
which were the following :—‘The Princess Mary of Cambridge, and a favourite
Newfoundland Dog, the property of Prince George of Cambridge.’”’ The princess,
then a child, is ‘‘ giving lessons’? to the huge animal: the picture is finely and
carefully painted. ‘‘Tethered Rams,’ now in the Sheepshanks Collection: two
rams, guarded by two sheep-dogs, are fastened to the trunk of a tree which lies
on the ground; in the middle distance is a flock of sheep under the care of the
shepherd, who 1s ‘talking to a girl: the background landscape shows a lake and
mountains. ‘Corsican, Russian, and Fallow Deer,” admirably grouped, and herding
together quite in harmony, though it may be questioned whether animals whose
habits are so opposite ever meet on such amicable terms. ‘Portrait of Miss Eliza
Peel with Fido,’ a gem of a picture, yet nothing more than a pretty child
fondling her pet-dog. ‘Van Amburgh and his Animals,” a commission from the
Queen. Landseer repeated this subject on a much larger scale, in 1847, for the late
Duke of Wellington; the picture is now at Apsley House. The two compositions
are somewhat dissimilar; in the first, a lion is the prominent animal, “while the
great brute-tamer exhibits the bloody wounds upon his neck and arms with evident
pride and satisfaction as so many honourable scars: numerous figures are looking
through the iron-grating with wonder and delight.” The second version was
entitled “Portrait of Mr. Van Amburgh, as he appeared with his Animals at the
London Theatres.” Here, as in the other, Van Amburgh is seen in the cage, a
lion, lioness, &c., being on his left hand, and on his right a tiger and other
animals: he holds in his hand a whip. The lion has raised himself against
20 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

the bar of the cage, with his huge mouth wide open; the lioness is crouched at his
feet, her eyes fixed upon the man with the utmost intensity of expression. All the
beasts are painted with wonderful truthfulness, but the lioness is the triumph of the
whole. Van Amburgh’s figure is forced and theatrical.

In 1840 Landseer sent to the British Institution a small picture, ‘‘ Young Roebuck
and Rough Hounds,” now in the Sheepshanks Gallery; the wonted skill and accuracy
of the artist are here self-evident; but the subject is far from agreeable, for the
roebuck lies dead among some rocks, and one of the four dogs which surround it is
licking up the blood that flows from a wound in the neck. A far more agreeable
spectacle, in several pictures, awaited the visitor to the Royal Academy that year.
First, there was ‘‘ Horses taken in to Bait’’—the interior of a stable, having some-
thing of the aspect of an old baronial hall; horses and stable-requisites excellently
composed and painted. A second was ‘‘ Macaw, Love-birds, Terrier, and Spaniel-
puppies, belonging to Her Majesty,’ all grouped into a very pleasing picture, but
rather cold and raw in colour. Then followed ‘‘ Lion Dog (from Malta, the last of the
Tribe) the property of H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent;’’ interesting not less for the
peculiarity of the dog than for its admirable execution. A fourth work was “ Lion and
Dash, the property of the Duke of Beaufort ;’’ the former animal a dog of the finest
and most noble character; the latter a tiny spaniel, scarcely bigger than the head of
its companion: the huge fellow evidently considers itself the natural protector of the
other, and that it is his duty to keep watch and ward over him. The last of the year’s
exhibited pictures was one of Landseer’s most humorous compositions, ‘ Laying down
the Law’’—in a canine court of justice: the presiding judge is a large white and shaggy
poodle, looking as solemn as if the case before him were a question of life and death;
the learned counsel on both sides are represented by dogs of various kinds; one of
them, a sharp, crabbed kind of terrier, that seems equal to any amount of blustering
in the cross-examination of a witness, appears to be arguing some disputed point with
the judge in a way that will probably bring upon him the rebuke of the bench, if not
a committal for ‘‘ contempt of court.’”” One may almost feel surprised that the painter
himself was not brought up for judgment for thus caricaturing the majesty of the law.
The picture is in the Duke of Devonshire’s collection at Chatsworth.

I have been unable to ascertain when ‘“‘ The Chieftain’s Friends,’’ here engraved,
was produced ; but it is certainly one of the artist’s early works, and was painted for
the late Duke of Devonshire: the picture is at Chatsworth. The ‘Chieftain’ is
Lord Richard Cavendish, second brother of the present duke; his ‘friends’’ are
the dogs and the falcon, with whom he has evidently just been having some
sport, for a dead bird, which has fallen a victim to the falcon, lies on the dwarf stone
wall that surrounds the pond, overgrown with water-lilies. The picture is a felicitous
attempt to combine, in costume and circumstance, modern portraiture with the customs ‘
 
  
 
    

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OTTERS AND SALMON. 21

 

of ages long since passed away. The action and life-like expression of the large
Italian greyhound are especially to be noted.

In 1841 Landseer contributed to none of the exhibitions; an attack of illness in
the autumn of the preceding year compelling him to forego all labour. By way of
recruiting his health he paid a visit to Germany, residing principally in Vienna, and
returned to England at the close of the year, better for his trip, yet not thoroughly
established in health. He was soon, however, at his easel again, as the records of the
following year’s pictures show.

In the British Institution (1842) appeared another of the pictures, which, by the
munificence of Mr. Sheepshanks, has become the property of the country, and is now
at South Kensington,—‘“ Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like Home,’’ a work
rendered popular by the durin of the late B. P. Gibbon. A little rough terrier, the
tenant of a barrel that has been transformed into a kennel, returns to his humble home
after a temporary absence, only to find his dinner eaten up by some wandering
‘‘snapper up of trifles,’’ the platter broken, and a snail crawling over the fragments,
indicating the utter hopelessness of the hungry dog’s position. It is difficult to
describe the expression of the poor animal’s eyes, as with his head upraised, he seems
to be preparing a howl for the loss of his meal, though glad to get back again to
his old quarters.

To the Academy he sent the same year seven pictures, one of which was called
“Otters and Salmon,’’ subsequently engraved by J. R. Jackson. The scene is a view
of a broad, rocky river, such as every experienced angler would naturally assume to
be the haunt of salmon and trout. A large otter, painted life-size, has seized a fine
grilse, which he is about to devour on a diminutive islet midway in the rushing stream,
when he is interrupted, ere he begins his meal, by the appearance of another of his
species, desirous of sharing the dainty with him, and upon which he turns, still holding
the fish, with an emphatic menace as a caution against interference. The mouth of
the animal, and its ferocious, defiant expression, are the triumph of the picture;
though both the otters and the fish are painted with such truth as to approach reality

as nearly as art can ever do. Another, ‘‘ The Highland Shepherd’s Home,”’ passed

into the possession of Mr. Sheepshanks: when this gentleman parted with it I do not |

know, but it got into the hands of the late Mr. Bullock, at the sale of whose collection, |

in 1870, by Messrs. Christie, it was bought by Messrs. Agnew for 1000 guineas. |

The subject is merely the room of a Highland cottage, in which a young husband and

his wife are watching with loving eyes their infant asleep in a rudely-constructed cradle.

The tranquil joy of the pair seems to be shared by the old sheep lying at the side of

a dog, and by a hen with her brood of chicks. It is a strange domestic scene for a

Southron to contemplate—the hut and its variety of occupants; yet it is a very

pleasant picture in itself, independently of the fidelity and carefulness with which it is

painted throughout.
%

22 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, &.A.

 

Of a third picture of this year (1842), ‘A Pair of Brazilian Monkeys,” I shall speak
hereafter. Another was “ Ziva,’”’ a badger-dog, belonging to the Hereditary Prince
of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, not a beauty in itself, though of a glossy black colour: he
has for a companion a monkey holding in his paw an apple, which he rapidly devours
with unmistakeable relish ; the dog fixes his eye with intense meaning on the monkey,
as if he felt half-disposed to ‘“‘draw’’ him, after the manner of a badger. The fourth
work that merits special note was ‘“ The Sanctuary,” suggested by the following
passage in a poem entitled ‘‘ Loch Maree,” but by whom written is not stated :—

“ See where the startled wild-fowl screaming rise,
And seek in marshalled flight those golden skies.
Yon weary swimmer scarce can win the land,
His limbs yet falter on the watery strand.

Poor hunted hart! The painful struggle o’er,
How blest the shelter of that island shore!
There, whilst he sobs his panting heart to rest,
Nor hound nor hunter shall his lair molest.”

.

The picture, as a critic truly remarked at the time when it was exhibited, “ illustrates

’ The immediate

the power of a great mind over the simplest materials in composition.’
objects are a stag, and a flock of wild ducks scared by the former from their retreat ;
but the poetry of the whole is such as never can be excelled in art of this kind. The
scene is in the Highlands, and the eye of the spectator is carried across a broad
expanse of lake, on the opposite shore of which the rising backs of hills come out in
deep shadow against the subdued light, for the sun has set behind the ridge. To
escape his pursuers the hunted stag has taken to the water, and has just gained footing,
after a lengthened swim, on an islet in the lake—‘‘ The Sanctuary.’’ The waters of the
lake are smooth as glass, so that the course of the wearied animal is marked by the
track he has left on its surface; while the solitude and security of the spot are shown
by the alarm of the stranger’s appearance among the fowls, which have risen from
their sheltered home, and are winging their flight to the nearest point of the mainland.
Their departure it is which alone breaks the perfect serenity and repose pervading the
entire composition. The picture was painted for the late Prince Consort.

In the Sheepshanks collection is a work that was exhibited at the British

Institution in 1834, and is here engraved under the title of ‘“The Friend in Suspense.”’

-One can scarcely examine it without feeling commiseration for the noble animal
‘waiting the re-appearance of his master, who has been carried wounded, perhaps dead,

into an apartment of some old baronial hall. How piercingly his eyes are fixed upon
the closed door, as if they would penetrate the stout oaken panels: there is something
quite painful in the earnest, anxious look of the dog, that indicates a feeling deeper
than that of ‘‘ suspense ;”’ it is one of extreme distress ; and a clue to it may be offered
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THE FRIEND IN SUSPENSE

 
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C.LEWIS, SCULPT

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THE RETURN FROM THE WARREN. 23
in the suggestion, that he has seen his master borne into the room, or has traced him
there by the drops of blood scattered in a line on the floor. On a table lie the gauntlets
of the wounded man; and in the immediate foreground is an eagle’s feather. Few
as the materials of this picture are, they are worked up most expressively and
touchingly.

The two pictures exhibited by Landseer at the Academy in 1843 were less notable
as regards subject than was usual with him. One, “Portrait of the Hon. Ashley
Ponsonby,’’ was subsequently engraved by Mr. T. Landseer, and published under the
title of ‘‘The Return from the Warren.’’ The figure, that of a handsome youth,
bareheaded, and dressed in crimson velvet, is mounted on a beautiful bay pony, which
is cantering homewards with sundry rabbits slung over its back: their companions are
two dogs, a terrier and a beagle, one of which carries his young master’s cap in its.
mouth. The composition of the subject is very simple, yet most effective from the
wonderful animation with which the animals are portrayed: the head of the pony is
really a fine study; it shows a sagacity almost amounting to intelligence. Landseer’s
manner in dealing with portraiture was always most fascinating; while keeping the
individual as the most prominent object in the composition, he accompanied it with
such accessories as to render the whole a scene of surpassing interest.

In his other picture of the year, ‘‘ Horses—the property of William Wigram, Esq.,”’
we notice the same inventive power displayed in the portraiture of the animals. Two
horses are seen in the foreground preparing to drink from a large iron pot. By their
side are a pair of magpies, one of which thrusts his beak into a huge marrow-bone. It
is evident that the horse nearest to the bird considers it a thing of ill omen, for while
his nose dips into the pot, his ears are thrown back, and his eye is turned significantly
towards the intruder.

There were two engravings published this year from the works of Landseer, but I
have been unable to ascertain when and where the pictures were exhibited, or if they
ever were seen in public at all. One was called “ Lassie herding Sheep,’’ engraved
in mezzotinto, by John Burnet, from the painting then in the possession of Mr. Wells,
of Redleaf. In a far-away nook among the heathery hills of Scotland, a ‘“‘lassie”’
stands leaning against the broken acclivity, in the act of knitting. There is extreme
ease in the position of the figure, and the limbs are, as usual with this artist, admirably
rounded. Near her are scattered about numerous sheep, and a black-face ram, tethered
by the horns, is struggling to release himself. Her dog, a meagre lank-boned
animal, crouches by her side, with his ears pricked up, alive to every sound and
movement., : ' . we

The other print, engraved by T. Landseer, is called - Children with Rabbits.
The former are the son and daughter, orphan-children, of the Hon. Seymour Bathurst.

The boy stands holding a live rabbit, which is carefully covered with a cloth, while his
24 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

sister stoops to fondle another pet, closely hugging it to her bosom. The little
maiden’s hands are almost buried in the luxuriant fur of the animal, which accepts the
caresses very contentedly, as if accustomed to them. It is interesting to note the keen
observation of the artist, who always managed to endow the most simple incident with
the language of truthful representation. For instance, here the pressure of the hands
on the rabbit is described by the partial closing of the eyelids. In addition to the two
animals serving as “ principals,’’ several younger rabbits are seen whimsically arranged
in a brown dish.

In the Vernon collection are the two small pictures ‘‘ High Life’’ and ‘‘ Low Life,”’
of which engravings are introduced into this volume; they were exhibited in the British
Institution in 1831. The former title is given to a splendid stag-hound, seated in an
apartment of a lordly castle; the room, judging from its furniture and general contents,
appears to be that ordinarily used by the animal’s master—probably a baron or knight
of the olden time, for

“ Helmet and sword, breastplate and glove, are there,”

with other objects of a more peaceful nature, and showing their owner to be a bookman
and scribe as well as a warrior; implements of writing lie on the table, interspersed
with heavily-bound volumes. But there are two objects which seem to be quite out of
place in a composition that carries the mind back to a comparatively remote age:
these are the candle set up in a modern candlestick, and the cord and tassel serving,
as it must be considered, for a bell-pull; both introductions destroy the otherwise
medizval character of the whole scene. The hound is a right worthy specimen of
canine ‘‘high life’’—well bred, well cared-for, graceful in form, and most intelligent in
expression.

‘‘Low Life’’ is the exact counterpart of all this, having no claim to higher rank
than that assigned to him by the artist, either by birth, education, or ownership. It
must be admitted, however, that there is a class of men—aristocratic men too—who
patronise dogs of this kind, and esteem them beautiful : and this fellow assumes such an
air of dignity, as he sits basking in the sunshine in the doorway of: a butcher’s out-
house, as would warrant the supposition that he, too, were of royal race, and fit com-
pany for any one. But he is a dog evidently not to be played with by a stranger: that
broad chest and deep jowl, those short, strong, and muscular legs, would render him a
formidable opponent if roused into action, and a valuable ally to his master, whether
engaged in deeds good or evil. The true character of a thorough fighting-dog has
never been more faithfully portrayed, and whatever the duties required of him, there
can be no doubt of his faithfully and vigorously performing them. The accessories
of the picture typify the owner of the ill-favoured animal—what mischief lurks in that
half-closed eye; it will open widely enough should any hostile foot, whether of biped
 

HIGH LIFE

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HIGH LIFE.

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A BATTLE O DOWGS. 25

 

or quadruped, approach: the empty porter-pots, in one of which a tobacco-pipe has
been placed; the large and heavy top-boots; the hat, the neckcloth, the bottle and
knife, all on the block; the rope and oil-horn hanging up ;—all are as significant of a
‘‘low”’ calling, though one perfectly honest and necessary, as is the animal himself
among the canine species.

It must have been a dog of this fighting character that Professor Wilson, in his
‘Recreations of Christopher North,’ refers to as engaged in a terrific encounter
with another—assumed to be, or perhaps really, his own, and which he calls ‘‘ Fro : m2
of this latter animal he says—

“Never yet saw we a fighter like thee. Up on thy hind legs in a moment, like a growling
Polar monster, with thy fore-paws round thy foeman’s neck—bull-dog, collie, mastiff, or
greyhound—and down with him in a moment, with as much ease as Cass,* in the wrestling-
ring at Carlisle, would throw a Bagman; and then woe to the throat of the downfallen, for thy
jaws were shark-like as they opened and shut with their terrific tusks, grinding through skin
and sinew to the spine.

“Once, and once only—bullied out of all endurance by a half-drunken carrier—did we
consent to let thee engage in a pitched battle with a mastiff victorious in fifty fights—a famous
shanker, and a throttler beyond all compare. It was indeed a bloody business: now growling
along the glaurt+ of the road—a hairy hurricane; now snorting in the suffocating ditch; now
fair play on the clear and clean crown of the causey; now rolling over and over through a
chance open white little gate, into a cottage garden; now separated by choking them both
with a cord; now brought out again with savage and fiery eyes to the scratch on a green plot
round the signboard-swinging tree in the middle of the village; auld women in their mutches +
crying out ‘Shame! where’s the minister?’ young women, with combs in their pretty heads,
blinking with pale and almost weeping faces from low-lintelled doors; children crowding for
sight and safety on the louping-on-stane ;§ and loud cries ever and anon at each turn and
eddy of the fight of ‘ Well done, Fro! well done, Fro!’ for Fro was the delight and glory of
the whole parish ; and the honour of all its inhabitants, male and female, was felt to be staked

on the issue,” &c., &c.

More to the point, perhaps, as regards Landseer’s specimen of ‘‘ Low Life,’’ is the
same writer’s description of a dog-fight in Edinburgh. It is found in Wilson’s

‘“*Noctes Ambrosianz.’’

“Shepherd. Down anither close, and a battle o’ dowgs! A bull-dowg and a mastiff! The
great big brown mastiff mouthin the bull-dowg by the verra hainches, as if to crunch his back,
and the wee white bull-dowg never seemin to fash his thoomb, but stickin by the regular set
teeth o’ his underhung jaw to the throat o’ the mastiff, close to the jugular, and no to be
drawn aff the grip by twa strong baker-boys pu’in at the tail o’ the tane, and twa strong
butcher-boys pu’in at the tail o’ the tither; for the mastiff’s maister begins to fear that the
veeper at his throat will kill him outright, and offers to pay a’ betts (szc.) and confess his dowg

 

* A famous Cumberland wrestler of that day. | { Caps.
+ Mud. § A stone or step to aid in mounting on horseback.

H
26 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

has lost the battle. But the crood wush to see the fecht out, and harl the dowgs that are
noo worryin ither without ony growlin—baith silent, except a sort o’ snortin through the
nostrils, and a kind o’ guller in their gullets—I say, the crood harl them out o’ the midden
ontil the stanes again; and ‘ Weel dune, Cesar!’ ‘Better dune, Veeper!’ ‘A mutchkin toa
gill on whitey!’ ‘The muckle ane canna fecht!’ ‘See how the wee bich is worryin him
now, by a new spat on the thrapple!’ ‘He wud rin away gin she wud let him loose!’ ‘ She’s
just like her mither that belanged to the caravan o’ wild beasts!’”

A ‘battle o’ dowgs’’ is a brutalising and disgusting sight, which we never
remember to have seen delineated by the pencil of Landseer; yet what can be
said of his ‘Otter speared?’’ painted for the late Earl of Aberdeen, exhibited at the
Academy in 1844, and now in the possession of Mr. S. Mendel, of Manchester. The
picture is a large one, and has been engraved by C. Lewis. I perfectly remember the
impression it made on my mind at the time, and on the minds of many others—a
feeling of regret that the genius of the painter should have been employed on a
subject so revolting, and from which one gladly turns away. What can be much more
painful to look upon than the wretched animal held aloft and writhing on the
huntsman’s spear, with a pyramid of hounds about him; some in the stream of water
at the man’s feet, others on the high bank above him, and others climbing and leaping
around him ; but all vociferating and struggling, to get at the victim? The dogs are
said to have been portraits of Lord Aberdeen’s otter-hounds, and certainly they are
here painted with a living, active expression that is marvellous: in colour the picture
throughout is rich and brilliant.

‘“‘ Disappointment ”’ is the title given to a small and rather- sketchy, yet masterly,
work exhibited with the preceding. It represents a lady wearing a scarlet mantle,
trimmed with minever. She is seated, and her features wear a look of sadness, as if
disappointed at the non-arrival of some loved one: hence the title. A favourite dog
is near her, with his large dark eyes fixed on her face, and appearing to be sensible of
her grief and to share it with her.

“The Challenge—Coming Events cast their Shadows before,’’ was the third
exhibited picture of the same year. The conception. of this work is really grand—as
much so as a fragment of some Homeric description of a Greek or Trojan chief going
out to meet his enemy in single combat. On the border of a wide lake, and under a
moonlit sky—though the moon is not seen—stands a noble stag, waiting the approach
of his opponent, gallantly swimming through the water towards him. It is impossible
to look upon the former of the two animals—which, amid the depth of a snow-scene
and the semi-darkness of night, bells forth the challenge to his rival,—without feeling
deep interest in the combat about to follow, and a fear as to the result: it must be
‘death to one of them. At one moment we believe the challenger must have. the
advantage, inasmuch as he is not fatigued by a passage through the water; and then
again we are disposed to back the on-comer, whose strong head and antlers rise
 

LOW LIFE

 
LOW LIFE.

LONDON, VIRTUE & CO

LIMITED.

  
 
 

H BECKWITH, Sc

 

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THE SHEPHERD'S PRAVER. 27

 

pravely and menacingly above the surface of the lake, through whose depths he
rapidly ploughs his way, with the thickly-clustered stars twinkling above him. It is,
in put a painted poem; and the episode of the two pine-trees fallen in the snow—
typifying the prostration of the two combatants—the branches of one tree standing up
and out like the antlers of the stag, whose shadow seems moving over the sheeted
ground, is very fine. The idea of the pair of forest-chieftains meeting alone in the
twilight and silence of the night is grand; and the manner in which it is carried out
is as fine as the conception. The picture is engraved by H. F. Walker.

Landseer’s fourth and last exhibited picture of 1844 was ‘ Shoein g,’’ bequeathed to
the nation by the late Mr. Jacob Bell, and now in the National Gallery. The scene is
the interior of a farrier’s shop, in which a man is putting a shoe on the hind foot of a
bay horse, which is most beautifully painted as to texture of skin. The animal is the
portrait of ‘Old Betty,”’ a favourite of its owner; and she stands in a way that was
peculiar to it when undergoing this operation, and without a halter, for it would not
permit itself to be fastened up. The farrier, the donkey, and the bloodhound, are also
portraits. There is a fine engraving, by C. Lewis, from the picture.

Four small works were contributed by Landseer to the British Institution in 1845 :—
‘** Decoy-man’s Dog and Ducks.” Here the dog is left in charge of the birds, which lie
around him: the ducks are skilfully drawn, and their plumage is exquisite in colour and
texture; it seems as if a breath of air would ruffle the lightest feather. ‘‘ King Charles’s
Spaniels,’’ will be referred to hereafter. ‘‘ A Sussex Spaniel,’’ waiting by a dead
pheasant till it is picked up by the sportsman. The fourth, ‘‘ A Retriever,’’ shows only
the head and shoulders of the dog, which carries a woodcock in its mouth. The
perfect training of the animal is seen in the way he holds the bird, without displacing a
feather. It is by such minute attention to details that the painter proves himself
thoroughly acquainted with field-sports.

The only picture he exhibited at the Academy in that year bore no title, but it
might appropriately have been called ‘‘ The Shepherd’s Prayer.” The canvas is some-
what large, and the composition remarkable for being constituted of small objects. It
represents a shepherd kneeling devoutly before a “ Calvary,” or figure of the Saviour
crucified, erected by the side of a road leading over a wide tract of common with a

few trees growing on it. Around the man is a very numerous flock of sheep, many of

which are straggling into the distance. The sentiment of the work is of a character

more elevated than one is accustomed to see in the pictures of this artist: a hallowed
tranquillity at once reaches the senses, and maintains there increasing influence so long
as the eye rests on the canvas, for there is nothing to disturb the spiritual repose.
Even the trees are mannered into reverential eloquence consonant with the main purpose.
The “Calvary” is unusually large, so much so as to reduce the importance of the living
figure, who is habited in the ordinary blue blouse of the French peasant; but, for the
28 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

sake of the picturesque, it may be presumed, or because French sheep are not con-
sidered so symmetrical as our own, the flock of which he is guardian are some of Scotch
breed, and others, those wild black-faced tups that will dispute with a stranger the
narrow path in their mountain-pastures. The picture is an attractive one in every way,
but worthy of special commendation are the fleeces of the animals—real wool they must
be. It was reported when exhibited that it was painted for, or purchased by, the late
Sir Robert Peel, but I do not find it included in any list of the pictures in the possession
of that statesman.

‘“‘ Highland Music,’’ engraved here, was painted in 1832 for the late Mr. Vernon,
and is now at South Kensington; it was never exhibited, though a subject with a
similar title appeared at the British Institution in 1830. The picture is among those
triumphs of objective truthfulness of representation of which no painter, or any age or
country, has afforded more skilful examples than Sir Edwin Landseer. We have here
all the fidelity of imitation of the best Dutch masters combined with a thorough under-
standing of the contingent varieties depending on local and incidental causes. To this,
few only of the Dutch painters have ever. attained; and the sentiment of the subject
does not yield to the execution of it. A picturesque old Highland piper appears to
have designedly and mischievously interrupted the frugal meal of a group of hungry
dogs by a vigorous and sudden appeal to his bag-pipes. The varied effects of “‘ High-
land Music” on the different animals are as striking as ludicrous. One blind-eyed
little terrier to the left seems disposed to expel the noisy intruder; another near him
has set up an accompaniment of its own; two fine hounds sit quietly, as if their aristo-
cratic blood and breeding were proof against emotion of any kind that would betray
strong feelings—they would witness a tragedy without shedding a tear, and a comedy
without exhibiting a smile. The fifth dog, crouched at the feet of the musician, turns
up his eyes to the old Highlander with an intensity of expression, which, though not
human, expresses effectually the animal’s true sympathetic appreciation of the stirring
strains.

Here we have strong sentiment and forcible imitation. This is very observable in
the accessories of the picture; in the wooden chair on the left, with the plaid hanging
over the back ; and in the various utensils about the room, among which the man’s short
tobacco-pipe is not the least characteristic, The old piper himself stands out with great
boldness, through the relief given to his head by the dark recess immediately behind
him ; and the effect of space in the small apartment is very cleverly produced’ by the
introduction of a partial glimpse of light in the extreme background. The peculiarly
subdued character of colour pervading the picture is worthy of remark: a warm tertiary
tone prevails throughout; the only positive colour being the touch of red of the High-
lander’s stocking. This wholesome subjection of colour admits of the duly prominent
display of the sentiment of the composition, so admirably expressed in the animals.
 

SM Sarrs

HIGHLAND MUSIC
“CHIINTT 399 SALYIA’ NOCNOT

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REFRESHMENT—A SCENE IN BELGIUM. 29

 

This small, but most valuable, picture is painted on panel, and measures about two
feet by one foot and a half. It is a striking example of the clean and _ solid
execution of the artist: the textures are rendered with marvellous truth, especially the
coats of the dogs, which even the painter himself has never surpassed. In the head of
the old Gael there is no indecision; the healthy hues of his features are laid in with a
full pencil, and the chiar’ -oscuro yields an effect that could not possibly be improved by
any other arrangement.

Passing from this chronological digression in the order of the appearance of
Landseer’s pictures, I now come to the year 1846, when he exhibited at the
Academy four works—all of them specially notable; three of these, ‘‘ Time of Peace,”
“Time of War,”’ and ‘‘ The Stag at Bay,’’ will be referred to hereafter: the fourth
picture, ‘‘ Refreshment,” a truly fine and a most interesting work, was painted for, or
sold to, Mr. Nieuwenhuys, a well-known Belgian picture-dealer. The work has been
very effectively engraved by H. Cousins; the print is called ‘‘ Refreshment—a Scene in
Belgium.’ In front of a wide ancient doorway, that appears to be the entrance to an
old Norman chateau, stands a white draught-horse, still caparisoned in the heavy
harness peculiar to that part of the Continent, though he has evidently just come off a
journey. His head-gear hangs about his stout neck, and he is refreshing himself
with a meal of carrots, turnips, and other vegetables placed on a large tub turned
upside down. Leaning against the side of the archway, with his legs bare and one foot
slipped out of his sadof, a boy rests lazily a knee against the edge of the tub; and just
inside the archway is a buxom, pleasant-looking lass ; both watching the animal at his
feast; his sleepy eye and negligée posture intimate his weariness. In addition to these,
two large and handsome dogs, one of which certainly knows what it is to work in
harness, are lying down to rest themselves ; one close to the tub, the other under the
shadow of a mass of woodwork, the flat top of which serves as a kind of table for a
bottle of green glass containing red wine, an apple, and sundry other objects. In
the middle distance is visible a man tending some goats; he half reclines on the
ground, with his head turned towards the group in the foreground; and beyond all is a
glimpse of hilly ground, the tender and airy hues of which are beautifully rarified by the
opposition of the bottle and its contents standing out in brilliant relief against it. The
artist seems to have painted the picture with a view to show his power of delineating
those objects in which he most excels. There are the dogs, drawn with his accustomed
truth—the horse admirably characterised—a portion of a fleece, unexceptionable sheep-
skin—and a boy and young female; many of these are the elements of his best works.

It was publicly stated at the time these four pictures were exhibited, that Landseer
received for them nearly £7,000: namely, £2,400 for the paintings themselves, and

£4,450 for the copyrights. The late Sir Francis G. Moon gave £2,650 for the
copyright of “Peace”? and ‘“ War”: Messrs. Graves and Co., £1,000 for that of
I
30 STR EDWIN LANDSEER. R.A.

 

“Refreshment,” and Mr. McLean £800, with a share of the profits arising out of the
sale of the engraving, for the copyright of ‘‘ The Stag at Bay.”’

The only picture exhibited by Landseer in 1847, besides the ‘Van Amburgh
with his Animals’’—the large vepiica for the Duke of Wellington—which has been
already spoken of, was ‘‘ The Drive—Shooting Deer on the Pass—Scene in the Black
Mount, Glen Urchy Forest.’’ It is a picture of considerable dimensions, showing an
extent of wild and rugged mountainous scenery, with two figures crouched in a rocky
nook in the foreground: they are accompanied by two deerhounds, which a brawny
Highlander is holding back with a vigorous hand. On the precipitous side of one of
the mountains a herd of deer, ‘‘on the pass,”’ is scattered, for the rifle of the sportsman
has already brought down a noble stag and has carried alarm among the rest. A
dense Scotch mist veils the mountain on the right of the composition ; and beneath is
a break, showing a beautiful play of light on and oposite mountain. The picture is

generally low in tone and colour, but it everywhere manifests the hand of the skilful
painter. The work has been engraved on a large scale. In 1855 a small study made

for this picture was sold, with a portion of the collection of Mr. Birch, of Birmingham,
for 780 guineas.

In 1846 was published an engraving, by J. Burnet, of “‘The Hawk-Trainer.”’
I cannot ascertain whether the picture was ever exhibited, but it was the property of
the then Dowager Countess of Essex, The subject is a charming reminiscence
of the olden time; a saddled horse, a couple of dogs, a boy holding the latter, and
a mounted falconer with a hawk on his hand make up the composition.

‘“‘ The Death of the Stag,”’ of which an engraving is introduced here, was exhibited
at the Royal Academy in 1833, under the title of ‘‘ Deer and Hounds in a Torrent.’’
It belongs to the Vernon collection, and is in the National Gallery under the title of ‘The
Hunted Stag.”” Were one inclined to write a homily upon the sufferings of animals
which man makes subservient to his pastime, a more appropriate text could scarcely be
found than is supplied by this picture, beautiful though it is as a work of art; and
however unwilling one may be to introduce any remark that savours of over-sensi-
bility, or that would cast a shadow over the colouring of a fine painting, it is utterly
impossible to comment upon a work of such a character as this without some allusion
to its subject-matter, and the feeling to which it must naturally give rise. The
very first idea it suggests to the mind is that of sympathy with the noble creature
borne headlong over the foaming waters and amid sharp-edged rocks by the strength
of the torrent, and the fierce, firm grip of his assailants. We should admire the animal
could we see him with head erect and his limbs in full stretch, bounding from crag to
crag, or away over the level moorland, even though we know the hounds are hurrying
onwards, and may possibly soon fasten on his broad haunches. There is still, however,
in such a situation some chance of escape for him in the actual chase, some probability
 
 

J.COUSEN, SCULPT

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DEATH OF THE STAG. 31
that his swift legs will carry him beyond the reach of his pursuers, or hide him in deep
covert, where even canine sagacity cannot track him. But from Landseer’s picture
there is no such hope to be sustained, no pause in the struggle between life and death,
no drawing back from sudden destruction: had the stag only the element of water to
contend against, that breast might stem the torrent, and those delicate but muscular
limbs might bear him safely over the mimic cataract to the shores of the lake. He is
held down, however, by one of his powerful adversaries, and is wearied perhaps by a
hard day’s run; his tongue protrudes from exhaustion and pain; the eye is already
half-glazed in the anguish of death; and though he still holds his head proudly
upwards, and stretches out his body bravely over the crest of the waters, it is only like
the last effort

“Of some strong swimmer in his agony :”

he has struggled hard and nobly for life, and falls with his face to the enemy.

It may well be asked, Why then do painters select such subjects as these, when the
animal-world in its innocence and joyousness, the whole creation in all its beauty and
serenity, lie open before them, from which they may unreservedly make choice? The
question is more easily put than answered ; but they may have an object other than that
of merely exhibiting power to illustrate a special scene; they may possibly desire to
‘point a moral,’ and to do this effectually they would necessarily make the strongest
appeal to reason and sensibility that imagination could suggest. They would seize
the most striking incidents the subject admits of, and impart to them the most vivid
colouring, just as an orator often reserves his loftiest flights of eloquence for the
peroration, that he may leave the more lasting impression on his audience, or as a
tragedian throws all his energies into the death-scene that he may expire amid the
plaudits of the spectators. In all these cases efect is sought after; such an effect as
will best suit the purpose of him who performs it, by making the act to be, at one and
the same time, its own commentator, and the interpreter of the genius of him who
presents it.

There is a fine poetical feeling, of tragic character, thrown into the composition of
this work, which only a painter of high genius could have imagined; the landscape
harmonises with the deed of death; it is solitary, rugged, and barren; the hard granite
rocks, abrupt and shadowy, seem to look on, pitiless spectators of what is taking place
beneath them; and the only echo which fancy hears is that of the howl of the drowning
dog as the sound rolls along the gloomy amphitheatre of hills until lost in the distant
gorge. The last rays of the evening sun are fast disappearing, but they Still throw a
strong light over the foreground of the composition, and sparkle on the white foam of
the waters, and on the wet green moss which covers the huge boulders of stone.

Although this is one of the artist’s comparatively early pictures, it is painted with
32 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

consummate skill and power; indeed it may be questioned whether he ever produced a
finer work of art in what constitutes sound and substantial painting; certainly he
never studied nature more closely than we find it here represented. This is especially
recognisable in the head of the stag, which is delineated with a truthfulness not to
be surpassed; neither Rubens nor Snyders ever exhibited ‘‘a hunt”’ with greater spirit
than Landseer has here shown; but there are other pictures by him which produce far
more unmingled gratification than ‘‘ The Death of the Stag.”’

In 1848 he sent to the Academy five works, conspicuous among which was
‘Alexander and Diogenes,”’ one of the pictures bequeathed by Mr. Jacob Bell, and
now in the National Gallery. It is agreeable to turn from the contemplation of the
work just described to this very humorous and truly happy conception. History relates
that Diogenes, the famous Greek cynic philosopher, in order to show his contempt for
wealth and display, at one time made a large tub his place of abode; and the story
goes on to say that Alexander the Great, accompanied by numerous courtiers, once
paid him a visit in this singular home, and announced himself by saying, “I am
Alexander the Great.’’ “And I am Diogenes the Cynic,” replied the philoso pher
‘What can I do for you?’”’ asked the monarch. ‘Stand out of the sunshine,’’ was
the rude answer. Struck with the remark, and to reprove his attendants, who were
surprised and indignant at such an insult to their sovereign, the king turned to them
and said, ‘If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.’’ Landseer has turned this
traditional incident to good account. The hero of the Granicus, Alexander, appears
in the form of a stout-built white mastiff, standing before a tub, wherein lies a ragged-
coated black dog, which, with upcast eyes, deprecates the shadow of his royal visitor,
in whose attitude and expression are seen pride, conscious power, and even swaggering
insolence. On the right of the canine philosopher is the lighted lantern, with which,
as we read in history, the real Diogenes went, in broad daylight, to search for an
honest man. By the side of the lantern lie a hammer and some nails, supposed to
have been used in the construction of his dwelling. Behind Alexander is his train of
courtiers—sleek, well-favoured dogs, adorned with handsome collars and bells.

Mr. Bell, the late owner of this picture, made the following comment upon it :—
‘‘ Politicians, and persons having a lively imagination, may see in Alexander the type
of a successful bully, who has fought his way in the world by Physical force, and has a
sovereign contempt for moral influence. His motto is ‘ v7 e¢ armis,’ in support of which
propensity he has obtained a few scars. Nevertheless he is quite ready at any
moment,

‘To fight his battles o’er again,
And thrice to slay the slain.’

Among his followers may be traced the portraits of a numerous class of persons, who
A RANDOM SHOT. 33

 

are always to be found in the wake of lucky adventurers, looking out for any share of
the spoil which chance or flattery may bring within their grasp.”’

Another picture of that year was Sir Edwin’s portrait of his venerable father, to
which allusion has already been made. Of the three remaining subjects, by far the
most important was ‘‘ A Random Shot,’’ which bore as its motto the following lines :—

“Full many a shot, at random sent,
Finds mark the archer little meant ;
And many a word at random spoken
May hurt or heal a heart that’s broken.”

The impression conveyed to the mind of the spectator who examines this picture is
unmitigated pain—all the greater because of the consummate skill with which the
artist has wrought out the subject, adding horror to horror. A dead hind lying in the
rich purple heather would be a sad sight to witness; but, as we find it here, lying in
the deep snow, is an aggravation of suffering, especially in conjunction with what else
the canvas shows. A writer in one of the public journals of the date of its exhibition
made these remarks :—‘‘ Landseer is the Sterne of his art; he moves us towards his
poor dead hind as Sterne did towards his dead ass. The fables, in which animals are
actors, pronouncing human sentiments, whence are deduced ethic lessons, are dwelt
upon only by the head, apart from every emotion. To move the soul something more
than fable is necessary ; it is that truth which touches the heart through a community
of feeling with the animal. The ‘Random Shot’ has stricken a hind, which has by
her side a sucking fawn; the scene is in the Highlands; it is winter, and the hills are
covered with snow. The wounded deer has ascended the mountain-side until she has
fallen dead, her footmarks being printed in the snow with the blood that has trickled
down her fore-leg from the wound. The fawn, as shown on the snow, has walked
many times round her dead mother, and is now seen attempting to suck. Of the two
animals, all that can be said of them is, they are painted in the very best style of the
artist. The tongue protrudes from the mouth of the deer, and we just see her eye,
having on it the dull glaze of death. The snow is coloured with the beautiful pink
and purple hues it assumes on the mountains at sunset; indeed, in every most minute
circumstance, the narrative is most scrupulous. The picture is, however, liable to the
very serious objection of causing intense pain to the beholder: real life has sorrows
enough in store for even the most fortunate, without giving to us those arising from
fiction. It is not in paintings as it is in books: the sufferings we endure from the one
are transient, while those which result from the other must be continuous; for a
picture must be continually in sight.”’

It is no morbid sensibility that would turn away from this picture; whoever is its
owner cannot, it may fairly be presumed, find any real pleasure in contemplating it,

K
34 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

apart from its merits as a work of art; and these can scarcely outweigh the feeling of
pain such a scene must or ought to produce in the mind.

‘Jack in Office,’’ engraved here, shows himself quite equal to the position to
which he has been elevated. The picture, which is at South Kensington, is one
of Landseer’s comparatively early works, dating as far back as 1833, when it was
hung at the Academy; but we may search the entire catalogue of his subsequent
productions to show anything more characteristic of dogofogy than this most humorous
and eloquent composition, for every animal discourses in its own appropriate language
as Nature, in accordance with her necessities or demands, prompts. First of all, there
is the ‘“*man in possession’’—the ‘“ Jack in Office’”—a strong-built, ill-tempered
mastiff, whose personal appearance evidences that he never knows the want of a meal ;
though his master possibly feeds him well, as much to prevent his robbing the barrows
as to get all the work out of him he can; on the principle which an Italian writer of
about a quarter of a century ago ascribes to Englishmen, when he asserted that we
fed our servants and labourers on the best to enable them to work the more. The
owner of the dog has left his subordinate in charge of the meat-barrow while he
delivers some pennyworths of horseflesh to his customers; or, perhaps, has betaken
himself to a public-house close at hand for refreshment. The over-fed creature
appears alive to his duty, and quite as ready to perform it. He sits and watches
the group around him with supreme contempt and indifference to their wants, like a
pampered menial ; and with manifest determination to repel any attack which might be
made on the savoury viands. The selfish and spoiled animal is but a type of a certain
class of human beings, who care little or nothing for others so long as they prosper
and have their own wants amply satisfied. There is a wholesome moral to be learned
from this representative dog.

Any one who notices in the streets a vendor of cats’ and dogs’ meat will almost
invariably see him accompanied on his rounds by a train of followers, enticed by the
luxuries he has for sale. Here is a group, diverse in character as in kind; but all
hungry, or pretending to be so. Foremost is a miserable, lank, half-starved hound, a
fitting candidate for some ‘home for the homeless,’’ yet it is clear she has an owner,
one, possibly, as wretched and hungry as herself, for the broken cord round her neck
tells of her escape from some kind of domicile; and no wonder, when you look at her
condition. She scans eagerly the tempting morsel in the plate, and would fain make an
attack upon it did not fear and weakness prevent. Behind is a sort of French poodle ;
he does not seem to be an object of commiseration, and yet his appeal is an argumentum
ad misericordiam ; as if any argument short of brute force could move to pity any
“« Jack in Office,”’ much less such a specimen as that enthroned on the barrow. There
is, however, a dog at a little distance from the others whose erect head and tail
indicate that he is rather disposed to try conclusions with the latter: he is a perky,
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bold fellow, whose incipient growl has perhaps caught the ear of the meat-seller’s
locum tenens, and is recognised as a sort of battle-cry. In front is a little ‘dog which
has succeeded in filching a skewer, probably flavoured with meat; this he crunches
with the most barefaced impertinence before'the face of the canine Dogberry. At the
entrance of the gateway, and in the far distance, is yet another animal, too timid,
probably, to approach nearer to a possible scene of conflict, yet ready to take his
share of the spoil if, happily, any came in his way, and he could enjoy it in safety:
with him ‘discretion is the better part of valour.”’

Not only are the animals painted to the life, but all the accessories, principal and
secondary, are delineated with marvellous truth ; the barrow, with its necessary imple-
ments of trade, such as the scales and weights, the cloth, the knife, the bag of skewers,
the basket and the plate it contains, &c., were evidently ‘‘ copied from nature.”’

Five pictures were contributed by Landseer to the Academy exhibition of 1849.
One, called ‘‘ The Desert,’’ represents a dead lion, said to have been sketched from
one that had recently died at the Zoological Gardens. The scene fully supports the
title given to the work, being a drear and rocky solitude, veritably ‘‘ the place of a
skull :’’ the subject is gloomy enough, yet it is most impressively painted, both the
animal and the landscape. Another, ‘‘ The Forester’s Family,”’ is one of the artist’s
most charming and attractive compositions: there is nothing in it to cast a shadow
of sadness over its serenity—no strife of combatants, no mutilated victims, no death ;
but, instead, such an entire absence of all which reminds one of the curse pronounced
upon man and beast, that Eden could not have exhibited a more harmonious union of
the superior and inferior created animals, except that there is something suggestive of
labouring ‘in the sweat of the brow,’’ and of the penalty to be paid by the living, in a
pair of huge antlers, once belonging to a creature that had life, and to which is
attached a piece of the stag’s skin, thereby showing that the horns were not dropped
in the natural process of shedding. The “ Forester’s Family’”’ consists of a young
barefooted female, who has been cutting long grasses or ferns, a truss of which she
bears on her shoulders; it attracts to her a herd of fawns, which follow her closely,
while others are hastening towards her. They form a most picturesque assemblage, -
standing on ground that rises up from a lake backed by a range of lofty hills, where,
on the right, a long rustic bridge crosses a deep ravine. The principal group,
pyramidal in form—including the young boy carrying the gigantic antlers—occupies
the centre of the canvas, and reaches almost to its extreme height; but it is
judiciously balanced by the nearest hills, which, being in shadow, have sufficient sub-
stance and strength to “carry off’’ the height of the figures.

“The Free Church”’’ also belongs to the same year. It represents a Highland
family worshipping in their kirk. Included in the domestic circle are the aged herdsman
and his wife, and their daughter, who have been accompanied to the sacred edifice by the
36 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

rest of the family—two sheep-dogs and a terrier, to which the church is rendered
as ‘free’? as to the human members of the congregation; and, certainly, the deco-
rous conduct of the animals affords a lesson to many bipeds who are accustomed to
attend regularly the services of the church. It must, however, be admitted that the
expression of one of the dogs suggests a rather lengthy sermon, producing a tendency
to drowsiness; this head is admirably painted; so also is the old man, which has a
character quite Rembrandtesque. There is a pleasant sentiment in another of the year’s
pictures, “ Collie Dogs,”’ lying on a heather-bank, from which their master has but
recently risen, leaving behind him his bonnet and Bible. The fifth and last work of
1849 was called ‘Evening Scene in the Highlands,” a subject very similar to one
the artist had previously painted in 1844, and which has already been described under
the title of “Coming Events cast their Shadows before.’”” In the immediate fore-
ground is a fine stag, on the bank of a broad lake, watching another on the opposite
shore, and which, as he stands in the water, is evidently meditating a rencontre. With
the exception of the summits of the distant mountains, the entire scene is in deep
shade, and is most poetically treated.

At the sale, in 1849, of the works bequeathed to the nation by Mr. Vernon, but
which the Trustees of the National Gallery declined to take, on account of their being
but of minor importance, were two examples of Landseer—‘‘ Catherine Seyton,” a
small picture, marked “ Unfinished, E. L.,’’ which sold for 70 guineas ; and “* Heads of
Deer and Game in a Pan on a Table,’’ which realized 166 guineas. The former
painting was a few years ago, and probably still is, in the possession of Mr. R.
Newsham, of Preston. It has been engraved.

One of the largest pictures, if not the largest, Landseer had hitherto painted,
appeared in the Academy in the following year; it bore the title, ““ A Dialogue at
Waterloo,” the principal figures being the hero of that famous victory, and his
daughter-in-law, the Marchioness of Douro, now the Duchess of Wellington, both
mounted on horseback, and standing on the field of battle, where the Duke is assumed
to be pointing out to the lady the relative positions of the two great contending
armies. He is the nearer of the two to the spectator of the picture, and his face is
seen in profile, while that of the Marchioness is turned full to the front, with an
expression of earnest attention, very different, it may be presumed, from that of
“Little Peterkin ’’ in Southey’s poem, on a similar victory, the Battle of Blenheim :—

“<«And everybody praised the Duke,
Who such a fight.did win.’
“But what good came of it at last?’
Quoth little Peterkin.
‘Why that I cannot tell,’ said he,
* But ’twas a famous victory.’ ”
RESCUING FROM THE SNOW-DRIFT. 37

 

This last line was attached to the title of the picture in the Academy catalogue.
On the left of the principal figures, are some Belgian peasants at their dinner,
a Belgian farmer, and girls with guide-books and Waterloo relics, or what are
assumed to be the latter, for sale. The picture was a commission from the late
Mr. Vernon, and is now in the National Gallery. It has been engraved by T. L.
Atkinson.

At the same time was exhibited a painting which, in lieu of a title, was accom-
panied by the following passage from the Gospel by St. Luke :—‘‘ What man of you,
having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in
the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?’? The quotation is
only applicable to Landseer’s picture as suggesting the idea, for the scene is a hill-
pasture in the Highlands, and some sheep having been buried in a heavy fall of snow,
the shepherd, with three of his dogs, is busy in search of them. A fine ram, appa-
rently all but dead, has already been rescued, and the fleeces of others, its companions
in misfortune, are visible; but the dogs constitute the feature of the composition.

“‘Good Doggie! ’?—the property of Lady Murchison, was the last of the five pictures
of 1850; it is a little gem of art, after its kind. ‘Doggie’
animal, in the act of begging, with its two paws up, resting against the arm of a sofa.
The head, with its open mouth and intelligent expression, is inimitable.

In this year Landseer received the honour of knighthood; he had for some
time been honoured, beyond any other painter living, by the personal notice of the
Queen and the Prince Consort, and was not an unfrequent guest at the banquet-table

>

is a handsome fox-headed

of royalty. The love of animals which her Majesty and the Prince always evinced, and
the interest the latter ever took in Highland field-sports, could scarcely fail to attract
towards them an artist so successful in his representation of such subjects—one, more-
over, whose general qualifications of mind and person befitted him to move in the
upper ranks of society. Landseer no doubt owed his dignity as much to private favour
as to his public reputation in art.

In 1850 the collection of pictures formed by Mr. Charles Meigh of Shelton,
Staffordshire, was sold: it included two early examples of Landseer’s pencils; one,
a small sketch, entitled ‘‘ Landscape—Sunset,”’ realising 35 guineas; the other,
‘A Dog in a Stable,”’ for which the purchaser paid 215 guineas.

“When first the day-star’s clear cool light,
Chasing night’s shadows grey,
With silver touched each rocky height
That girded wild Glenstrae,
-Up rose the monarch of the glen,
Majestic from his lair,
Surveyed the scene with piercing ken,
And suiffed the fragrant air.”—Legends of Glenorchy: a Poem.

L
38 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

These lines stood in the place of a title to a picture exhibited at the Academy in 1851:
it has been made popular, by means of Mr. T. Landseer’s fine engraving, under the name
of ‘The Monarch of the Glen,” a magnificent stag which, according to the verse that
suggested the subject, appears to be testing the quality of the mountain-air, lifting his
head aloft with the proud and graceful bearing natural to the animal. If ‘looks have
language’’ his nobility of countenance, and bold independent carriage speak as
forcibly of the dominion he holds in glen and forest, as does the sway of a powerful ruler
whose sceptre stretches over millions of the human family. And yet we detect nought
of the tyrant here, only the majesty with which nature has endowed him to give pre-
eminence among his fellows. This is one of those subjects which specially bear out the
oft-repeated remark that Sir Edwin was not a mere clever painter of animals, but an
artist who imparted to his representations that peculiar feeling and expression which
often tempt us to regard them only as a step lower than ourselves in character and
intelligence. And how much of poetry and appropriate idea is displayed in that
solemn, misty background; grand and solemn as if the foot of man had never trodden
its rugged mountainous heights to dispute possession with its antlered monarch,
whose round and well-conditioned body stands in strong relief against a sky quiet
with ‘‘night’s shadows grey!” .

The engraving of ‘‘ The Breakfast Party,”’ here introduced, is from a picture painted
many years ago—the exact date I cannot asccrtain but it must have been early in Land-
seer’s career—for the late Lord Dover. A bare-kneed young Highlander is performing the
office of preceptor to a group of dogs in the matter of behaving at their morning-meal,
which has been dished-up from the neighbouring cauldron. He appears to be giving
them a spoonful all round by way of disciplining them to obedience, chacun a son tour;
the elder dogs wait patiently enough, like “grave and reverend signiors,”’ but the
younger members of the fraternity have yet to learn the virtue of submission, and the
trial to which they are subject is almost beyond canine endurance: one of them is
inclined to make a dart at the well-filled spoon, but is checked by the up-lifted finger
of the boy. It is a most attractive picture, full of humour, and wonderfully expressive
of character in the animals: there is not a single head which is not a study; while the
entire composition, including the “ master of the ceremonies,” is so skilfully arranged
that all the points are seen to good advantage.

Landseer was strong in the Academy in 1851; for in addition to “The
Monarch of the Glen,’ he exhibited five other works. ‘Group—Geneva’’ is
a large composition, showing prominently the heads of a circle of animals feeding
en famille from one common crib. They are the size of life, and are congregated
under an archway, where are mules, an ox in harness, and a pony: a dog is
dozing a little apart from them, for the feast is not adapted to his palate. The
grouping is original, unlike anything Landseer had ever previously attempted ; the
 

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SCENE FROM “ MIDSUMMER-NIGHT’S DREAM.’ 39

 

colour has all the sweetness, and the execution all the firmness, which characterise
his best works.

Widely different from this is the “‘ Scene from Midsummer Night’s Dream. Titania
and Bottom; Fairies attending—Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mustardseed, Moth,”’ &c.,
introduced by the following quotation :—

“Tf we shadows have offended,
Think but this (and all is mended),
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend :
If you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearnéd luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long ;
Else the Puck a liar call:
So good-night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.” —

Epilogue.

Admitting the exquisite colouring and charming execution of this picture, I confess
it never gave me any pleasure to look at it. The idea of a beautiful female
fondling what seems to be a non-descript animal is repugnant to the feelings: take
away the head of the ass, and the objection is gone; but then the poet’s concep-
tion would go with it. Peaseblossom, seated on a delicate white rabbit, is a sweet
little “ bit.’ The work is finely engraved by Mr. S. Cousins. Another picture
of the year was “A Highlander,’ a sportsman in Highland costume advancing
ever the crest of a rock, which raises him in relief against a sky covered with
clouds that forebode a heavy fall of snow: in his hand he carries an eagle he has
recently shot. The figure has marked character. A not unsuitable companion to this
was “Lassie,” a Scotch girl standing at the edge of a brook, which she seems
preparing to cross; by her side are two fawns. The background shows a most
attractive passage of landscape—a glimpse of verdant hill-side broken by incidental
objects. The sixth picture, ‘‘ The Last Run of the Season,” is enhanced in painfulness
by its truth of representation: a fox lies on the ground in a state of utter exhaustion,
too plainly indicating that it, at least, has had its “last run”’ for the season, present
and future: the dogs must be at his heels.

In 1852 Landseer was absent from the Academy exhibition; but to the British
40 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. R.A.

 

Institution he contributed ‘‘The Deer Pass,”’ subsequently engraved by Mr. T. Landseer.
The picture was painted for, or purchased by, Mr. Frederick Peel. There certainly is
always a magic charm in the Highland scenes of this painter which overcomes all
opposition one might feel to their frequent occurrence: there are the snow-capped
mountains, the “ancient, everlasting hills,’’ purple with heather, the rocky ravines, the
deep glens,

“Peopled with deer, their old inhabitants,”

thick, palpable mists rolling between the gorges, and dense clouds through which the
sun appears scarcely able to penetrate—all these one knows well, having seen them
year after year; yet such is the skill of the painter in diversifying his materials, and
such the poetical feeling with which his pencil delineates them, that we sometimes
forget the reiteration in the variety and beauty of his expressions. It is no inadequate
proof of the genius of the artist that he produced something ‘“‘ ever changing, ever
new,” out of what may be called his “‘ old stock in trade.’’ In this ‘“‘ Deer Pass”’ we
recognise some familiar faces; our old friend ‘the monarch of the glen” greets us
conspicuously in the foreground of the composition; and the stag which once was “at
bay,”’ having baffled his pursuers, now stands boldly, but watchfully, amid the
solitude of the rocks: these are friends one always welcomes gladly in Landseer’s
pictures.

The scenery of the ‘‘ Deer Pass’’ is incomparably grand; the centre is occupied
by a disjointed mass of rocky mountain, whose rugged forms show that time and
tempest have been at work upon them. To the right is a deep ravine, through which
a streamlet trickles—nothing more; so narrow is it as only to show itself in sudden
gleams of light reflected from the sky; we could fancy what a torrent would flow
over the bed when the wintry snows have melted, and the rains are pouring their
floods from mountain and hill-side. To the left of the composition are gigantic
and shapely masses of granite reflected in deep pools of water. Between these and
the centre is the ‘“ Pass,’’ in the foreground of which stands a stag, looking out of the
picture, as if to challenge the attention of the spectator. He is surrounded by a bevy
of sleek hinds, that survey him as if proud of their lordly protector, and conscious of
safety under the guardianship of his mighty antlers. Further up the pass are others ©
of the herd, and on a mass of table-rock at its extremity are many more browsing on
the heather, here partially lit up with sunshine.

Unlike most of Landseer’s compositions, the animals in this seem to hold only a
secondary place; and yet the picture would have been an awful solitude without
them: with them it is beautiful even in its almost savage wildness. But the treatment
of the landscape may be classed among the painter’s triumphs. The grand forms of
the mountains, the solid heaved-up masses of granite, the shadowy glen receding from
NIGHT—MORNING. 41

the spectator till nearly lost to the eye, the line of light coming from behind the centre
and radiating the crests of the hills and other portions of the landscape, serve to show
that as much thought as executive skill was exercised on this really beautiful and most
suggestive work.

At the sale, in 1852, of a portion of the English pictures of the late Mr. William
Wells, of Redleaf, were two of Landseer’s paintings :—‘‘ Fallow Deer,’’ which sold
for 700 guineas, and ‘‘ Red Deer,”’ for 650 guineas. I believe the latter is now in the
possession of Mr. W. Bashall, Farington, Lancashire.

Four fine pictures, all indicative of the Scottish Highlands, formed his contributions
to the Academy in 1853. ‘‘Night’’ and ‘‘ Morning’’ are companion-works. The
former had as its descriptive motto the following anonymous verse :—

‘“‘The moon, clear witness of the fierce affray,
Her wakeful lamp held o’er that lonely place,
Fringing with light the wild lake’s fitful spray,
Whilst madly glanced ‘ the Borealis race.’”

The latter was thus introduced :—

“ Lock’d in the close embrace of death they lay,
Those mighty heroes of the mountain-side—
Contending champions for the kingly sway,
In strength and spirit match’d, they fought—and died.”

“Night” presents to the spectator two stags engaged in mortal combat—

“ Battle’s magnificently stern array,”

so far as the deadly encounter of these heroes of the mountain and the glen bear out
the line of the poet; ‘‘ Morning,” the combatants stretched out on the heather, dead,
and their antlers locked together as they fell in the fearful struggle for power and
dominion. How much of poetic feeling, painful, most painful, as the subjects are, do
these compositions exhibit! The combat is by moonlight, and yet not amid the stillness
of “ star-gemmed heavens”’ and the peaceful uprising of the queen of night ; but beneath
thick mists, veiling her beauty, and rain-torrents sweeping over mountain and over
loch, whose waters are lashed into fury, and a general war of elements almost as fierce
as that which the animals are waging. There is just light enough in the picture to
show the strife that is going on in the dreary solitude. In its companion, “‘ Morning ”’
has broken over the landscape; the same hills and lake and beds of heather, which
before were enveloped in mists and shadows, are now lit up with the loveliest and
brightest tints of a glorious sunrise, and the waters of the lake have subsided into a
voiceless calm; but death mars all its beauty, and the feeling which this produces
outweighs all other. How, indeed, could it be otherwise when it is the sentiment the
M
42 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

artist intended to convey? Then, too, there is the ignoble presence of a prowling fox
stealthily approaching; it has “sniffed the battle from afar,’’ and comes to feast on
the bodies of the dead. The scene is one of impressive solemnity, though its leading
features only represent the beasts that perish; but there is an application of the moral
taught by these two pictures which it is impossible not to note; and it is, that
if pride and ambition, anger and wrath, strife and bitterness, prevail in the brute
world, these tendencies to evil are no less characteristics of all who have been set
over the beasts of the field, and were made in the likeness of their Creator. Hence the
earth, almost from its foundation, has been filled with mourning, and men have gained
an immortality of fame, not so much by the good they have done, as by the injuries they
have inflicted upon their fellows. And so the painter of a deer-fight becomes a great
moral teacher, if only he be interpreted rightly, and his lessons are profitably read.
These two pictures were painted for the late Lord Hardinge. They have been
engraved by Mr. T. Landseer.

‘Children of the Mist,” the third work exhibited in the same year, represents a
group of deer on a mountain-top, enveloped in the mist so common in such regions :
it is an original and striking picture. ‘‘Twins’’ was the title given to the fourth
subject, two young lambkins lying by the side of their mother, a fine black-faced ewe,
on a verdant shelf of the mountain-side. A couple of collie-dogs are their companions,
but keeping at a respectful distance. Both dogs and sheep have all the truth and
power of the artist, though some portions of the work look thin in colour.

In that year a few capital pictures belonging to the late Duchess of Bedford were
sold by auction at her grace’s residence in Kensington. They included the following
examples of Landseer:—‘‘ The Hermit,’? which sold for 100 guineas; “A River
View in Scotland,” 198 guineas; “The Three Dogs,” 225 guineas; ‘“‘ The Highland
Cabin,’ 770 guineas; and ‘‘Dead Game,’’ for which the late Mr. Agnew, of
Manchester, gave the enormous sum of 1,200 guineas, though it is a small work.
I can find no record of the date of these pictures, nor if they ever were exhibited;
at least under these titles. It is most probable they were painted expressly for the
duchess, with whom Landseer was on terms of friendship.

“The Sleeping Bloodhound,”’ of which an engraving is here introduced, was
exhibited at the British Institution in 1835, and is now in the National Gallery, being
one of the pictures bequeathed to the nation by the late Mr. Jacob Bell. In the.
catalogue of the collection it is thus referred to:—

‘“<Countess,’ the hound here represented, sleeping on the top of a balustrade at
Wandsworth, one Sunday evening, overbalanced herself, fell a height of twenty-three.
feet, and died on the same evening. On the next morning she was carried to St. John’s
Wood in the hope that Sir E. Landseer would make a sketch of her as a reminiscence
of an old favourite. ‘This is an opportunity not to be lost,’ said the painter;
 

SLEEPING BLOODHOUND
“CUTIATT oD ANIYIA ‘NOCNOT

"ENQOHGOOTH INIAAaTS

idINOS 'SIMAT'D sVHO

 
ROYAL SPORTS ON HILL AND LOCH. 43

 

“go away, come on Thursday at two o’clock.’ At the appointed time the ‘ Sleeping
Bloodhound’ was a finished picture.’’ * Several versions of this incident have been
made public, but the main facts are as here related.

To paint the portrait of a dog not ‘in character’? would be almost the last thing
one would expect to see from the pencil of Landseer; and “Countess” is not the
poor lifeless animal which met an untimely death, and was laid down in the painter’s
atelier that he might make a fost-mortem study of her. She is a magnificent specimen
of animated canine flesh and blood, a “retainer’’ in some lordly mansion of old.
She is said to be asleep, but she has an eye more than half open, and is keeping good
watch and ward against any intruder. Her ears, too, are on the listen, as if she
heard the approach of some familiar footstep—possibly that of her master. With
the skill of a true master, the painter has given marvellous power to the subject by
his management of light and shade.

In 1854 he exhibited but two pictures at the Academy. One, a large canvas, he
called ‘“‘ Royal Sports on Hill and Loch: the Queen, the Prince Consort, the Prince of
Wales, and the Viscountess Jocelyn.’’ Landseer was not unfrequently honoured by
being the guest of the royal party when visiting Scotland, and he sometimes accompanied
the Prince Consort on his sporting expeditions. It is probable that on one of these
accasions he sketched this scene, or, at least, collected the materials for it. When
exhibited, the picture was labelled “‘ unfinished.”’ ‘Such a notice,’’ wrote a critic at
the time,—I did not chance to see the work,—‘“‘ under certain circumstances might be
a noli me tangere ; but in the present case, if it be sufficiently advanced for exhibition,
it is so for criticism. The errors we observe in the work seem to us to arise from its
having been wrought too near the eye; that is, in a space too limited to admit of such
a focus as would enable the eye to collect the entire composition. The Prince is
handing the Queen out of a boat; and, behind her Majesty, Lady Jocelyn stands in
the boat, which is steadied by four stalwart lochsmen. On the right, the Prince of
Wales is dismounting from his grey pony, assisted by a figure, on the other side of the
animal, so disproportionately large as to reduce the prince to dimensions unduly
diminutive. This must assuredly be altered. In the base of the picture lies its
power ; the game and fish, the result of the day’s sport, consisting of trout, buck, roe,
and birds, which, with the dogs, pony, and all the accessories, are incomparably fine.
The portrait of the Queen is unfinished, and that of Lady Jocelyn may be improved :
that of her Majesty is certainly at present by no means agreeable. Notwithstanding
the many upright lines in the picture, it has an obtrusive parallelism, first in the near
dispositions, then in the margin of the lakes, and, again, in the line of the hills; and,
with respect to colour, the upper section is altogether too ‘foxy’—it is the least

 

* Anecdote recorded by Mr. Bell, the testator.
ie SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

harmonious distance the artist has ever painted. We cannot think these defects will
remain unremedied when the picture is said to be finished.”’ To what extent it has
since been worked upon it is impossible to state.

The other exhibited picture of the year was ‘‘ Dandie Dinmont, the favourite old

Skye Terrier of her Majesty the Queen,” standing on a bank, and curiously examining
a hedgehog, as if he would fain make an attack upon it, had not experience, possibly,
taught him the danger of playing with edged tools. It is an amusing picture,
painted, especially the skin of the dog, with masterly power.
In the following year Landseer contributed nothing to the Academy, yet it was not
an unmarked epoch in his career. The International Exhibition in Paris was open,
and he was there represented by nine works :—‘“‘ Islay and Macaire,’’ the property of
the Queen; ‘Brazilian Monkeys,”’ also belonging to the Queen; ‘‘ The Sanctuary,”
the picture painted for the late Prince Consort; ‘‘Shoeing the Horse,’ ‘“ Jack in
Office,” “‘ The Highland Breakfast,’’ ‘‘ Highland Drovers,’’ ‘“‘ Tethered Rams,’ and
‘‘A Fireside Party.’ For these he was awarded one of the only two large gold
medals given to English artists. The recipient of the other was the late Sir Charles
Barry, for architecture.

** Saved !—Dedicated to the Humane Society,’ is one of two pictures sent to the
Academy in 1856; it would form a most suitable companion to the ‘‘ Distinguished
Member of the Humane Society,’’ painted in 1838, for it represents the ‘‘ member”’ in
the full exercise of his vocation. In other words, a splendid Newfoundland dog is
rescuing a child from drowning: the little fellow has evidently fallen from a jetty
or breakwater into the sea, from the depth of which the noble animal is bearing him
to some landing-place. The boy lies motionless in the mouth of his deliverer,
whose head is borne bravely up over the water with an expression which betokens a
request for aid: the dog’s sagacity teaches it that the stone-wall cannot be climbed
with such a burden unless assisted. Little of the animal is seen except the head,
which is very finely painted; but the dress of the child, instead of clinging closely
around the body, as saturated garments naturally do, appears almost as if the water
had never touched it, so firmly does it stand out. .

Another ‘‘dedicated’’ picture accompanied the latter. The name of Florence
Nightingale had become a household word throughout the country, and her acts of mercy
prompted Landseer to paint a work which he called “ Highland Nurses—Dedicated to
Miss Nightingale.’ The composition is almost as painfully impressive as that of ‘‘ The
Random Shot,” already noticed. The ‘‘nurses”’ are two does in the act of licking
the wounds of a poor stag that has been shot, and is dying on the crest of a Highland
mountain. They who have studied the natural history of these animals may be able to
verify the actual truth of such a representation—the fact, that is, of their making an
effort to relieve the sufferings of each other; but whether they do or do not, the
SCENE IN BRAE MAR—HIGHLAND DEER, ETC. 45

 

subject, as a picture, is calculated to give more of pain than of pleasure, however well
it may he set forth on the canvas; and here, certainly, nothing could be done in the
way ot improvement.

In the year just referred to, a picture by Landseer was exhibited at Mr. Bryant’s
Gallery, in St. James’s Street; its title was “Taking the Buck,” and it represents a
stag, on which the hounds have fastened, being secured with a rope by a huntsman :
the canvas is of very large dimensions, so as to allow the figures and animals being
rendered nearly of life-size. A picture with this title was exhibited at the British
Institution in 1826, probably the same as the one at Mr. Bryant’s, for it has an amount
of elaboration the artist rarely bestowed on his later works. I may here notice that,
at the sale of Mr. Fairlie’s collection, in the same year, a small picture by Landseer,
called ‘‘ Puppy and Frog,’”’ was sold for 290 guineas.

Landseer’s contribution to the Academy in 1857 consisted of three works :—
“Scene in Brae Mar—Highland Deer, &c.,’’ a large picture, in which the deer are
placed on a peak of one of the mountains, above the eye of the spectator, so as to
bring them into relief against the sky ; a mode of treatment frequently adopted by the
painter, and having this advantage, that it gives prominency to what may be considered
to be the leading feature of the composition. The principal object in the group of
animals is an old stag with immense antlers; he looks as if he had had many a
wearisome run to escape the fangs of the deer-hound and the rifle-ball of the stalker.
His companions are several does and fawns, probably his wives and children; two of
the latter are looking at what appears to be, for it is not very distinctly visible, an
eagle rising into the air with some unfortunate creature he has secured in his talons.
The picture is excellent in quality. It was painted for the late Mr. E. L. Betts, of
Maidstone, whose collection was sold in 1868, when this realised 4,000 guineas, for
which sum it was knocked down to Messrs. Agnew. There is a large engraving of it
by Mr. T. Landseer, and a smaller by Mr. G. Zobel. ‘‘ Rough and Ready’ is the title
given to a pony—certainly rough, but looking very quiet, so that a child might ride or
drive him. The accessories introduced are of an ordinary kind, yet so adjusted as to
be of value to the composition. The third contribution, ‘‘ Uncle Tom and his Wife for
Sale,”’ is an idea borrowed from Mrs. Beecher Stowe’s once popular but exaggerated
story, which the artist has travestied by representing Uncle Tom and his wife in the
form of two black mastiffs seated together in mute and melancholy companionship ;
and he has given to the husband’s face something of the configuration of the real
African’s. The picture is irresistibly whimsical in all points, for even the bodies and
limbs of the dogs seem to refer to humanity in the manner of their disposition.

This last-mentioned work became the property of the late Mr. John Houldsworth, of
Glasgow; and when his collection was sold in 1860, “ Uncle Tom”’ realised 770
guineas, which Mr. H. Wallis paid for it. The following year Mr. Wallis’s collection

N
46 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

was brought to the hammer, and the black pair decreased in value, Messrs. H. Graves
and Co. securing it for the price of 590 guineas. The picture subsequently passed into
the hands of Mr. Frederic Somes, of Loughton, Essex, whose collection was sold in
1867: ‘Uncle Tom and his Wife’’ now rose prodigiously in favour, for the purchaser,
Mr. Harter, was compelled to offer the enormous sum of 1,010 guineas ere he could
secure it.

There seems to be in all civilised countries such a natural sympathy between man
and the tribes of domestic animals, that a bond of union—oftentimes of affection—draws
them towards each other; the one rendering duty and obedience in return for the
fostering care and attention of the other; and thus a feeling of mutual regard exists
between them, which in the case of the superior animal, man, is carried heartily and
sincerely into everything that directs his mind towards the inferior.

Dogs, especially of the larger kinds, show a love towards children which is often
most marvellous, and as if the animals were their natural protectors. It is very rarely a
dog will retaliate upon a child, however roughly he may be treated ; but let a grown-up
person, even though he be the owner of the animal, attempt the same experiments, and
the chances are that he will suffer for his imprudence. The dog is not only the friend
of the child, but his companion and playmate; and nothing can be more pleasing
and amusing to witness than the perfect understanding and good faith each exhibits
towards the other.

Landseer’s ‘‘ The Friends’’—an early picture, engraved here—represents a little
incident which is very likely to have occurred between such companions. The scene
almost explains itself: the boy’s boat has been blown into the water out of reach, the
dog has regained it, and now stands with it in his mouth before the child, and gazes at
him with a self-satisfied look. The boy’s countenance indicates surprise more than
anything else, as if the dog had never before accomplished such a feat.

‘The Maid and the Magpie,” exhibited by Landseer in 1858, was bequeathed to the
nation by Mr. Jacob Bell, and is now in the National Gallery. It is a large picture, of
which the subject is borrowed from a trial that took place many years ago in F rance ;
wherein a young girl, servant to a farmer, was tried on a charge of robbing her master
of certain valuables, some spoons being among them. The innocence of the girl was
however proved by the discovery that a magpie belonging to the farmer had carried
away and hidden the lost property. The exact incidents of the case I have forgotten,
_ but the groundwork of it is as narrated. Landseer’s composition shows a kind of shed
in a farmyard, in which a pretty rustic girl is milking a cow; a young man stands
behind her, who is, doubtless, offering her some compliments, to which she pays more
attention than to her business. But the point of the subject lies in a pair of sadofs in
the immediate foreground, in which are a basin and a spoon; the latter object a
magpie is in the act of appropriating to itself, unobserved by the milkmaid and her
THE FRIENDS

 
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SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. PINXT

THE FRIENDS.

LONDON: J.S.VIRTUE & C® LIMITED.
DEER-STALKING. 47

companion; thus laying the foundation for the crime with which the poor girl was
charged. The costumes of the figures are French or Belgian. Other animals besides

the cow are introduced into the picture—a calf and goats. The work is distinguished

throughout by the clean touch and effective handling of the painter. It has been
admirably engraved by Mr. S. Cousins.

In the room of the Academy devoted to water-colour pictures, there was, that year,
a fine drawing entitled ‘“‘ Deer-Stalking.”” The subject was little more than a different
version of a theme the artist had previously shown on more than one occasion ; all of
which must vividly remind those who have read Professor Wilson’s “ Recreations
of Christopher North” of his poetic and graphic description of this Highland sport :—

“Dogs! Down—down—down—be stonelike, O Shelty!—and Hamish, sink thou into the
heather like a lizard; for if these old dim eyes of ours may be in aught believed, yonder by the
birches stands a Red Deer snuffing the east wind! Hush! hush! hush! He suspects an
enemy in that airt,* but death comes upon him with stealthy foot from the west; and if Apollo
and Diana—the divinities we so long have worshipped—be now propitious, his antlers shall be
entangled in the heather, and his hoofs beat the heavens. Hamish, the rifle! A tinkle as of
iron, and a hiss accompanying the explosion, and the King of the Wilderness, bounding up
into the air with his antlers higher than ever waved chieftain’s plume, falls down stone-dead
where he stood. . . . . lightning itself could hardly have withered him into more instan-
taneous cessation of life !

“He isan enormous animal. What antlers! Roll him over, Hamish, onhis side! See, up
to our breast, nearly, reaches the topmost branch. He is what the hunter of old would call a
‘Stag of Ten.’ His eye has lost the flash of freedom—the tongue that browsed the brush-
wood is bitten through by the clenched teeth—the fleetness of his feet has felt that fatal frost—-
the wild heart is hushed, Hamish—tame, tame, tame; and there the Monarch of the Mountains,
the King of the Cliffs, the Grand Llama of the Glens, the Sultan of the Solitudes, the Dey of
the Deserts, the Royal Ranger of the Woods and Forests—yea, the very Prince of the Air
and Thane of Thunder, ‘ shorn of all his beams,’ lies motionless as a dead Jackass by the
wayside, whose hide was not thought worth the trouble of flaying by its owner the gypsies!
‘To this complexion has he come at last,’ he who at dawn had borrowed the wings of the
wind to carry him across the cataracts!

“‘A sudden pang shoots across our heart. What right had we to commit this murder? How
henceforth, shall we dare to lift up our heads among the lovers of liberty, after having thus stolen
basely from behind on him, the boldest, brightest, and most beautiful of all her sons! We
who for so many years have been just able to hobble, and no more, by the aid of the Crutch,
who feared to let the heather-bent touch our toe, so sensitive in its gout—we, the old and
impotent, all last winter bed-ridden, and even now seated like a lametert ona shelty,} strapped
by a patent buckle to a saddle provided with a pummel behind as well as before—such an
unwieldy and weary wretch as We—fat and scant of breath—and with our hand almost per-
petually pressed against our left side, when a coughing-fit of asthma brings back the stitch,
seldom an absentee—to assassinate THAT RED DEER, whose flight on earth could accompany the

 

* ‘Direction, or point of the compass. t Cripple.
¢ Shetland pony.
48 STR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

eagles in heaven; and not only to assassinate him, but, in a moral vein, to liken his carcass to
that of a Jackass! It will not bear further reflection; so, Hamish, out with your whinger, and
carve him—a dish fit for the gods—in a style worthy of Sir Tristram, Gill Morice, Robin Hood,
or Lord Ranald. No; let him lie till nightfall, when we shall be returning from Inveraw with
strength sufficient to bear him to the Tent.

“But hark, Hamish, to that sullen croak from the cliff! The old raven of the cove already

scents death—
“«Sagacious of his quarry from afar.’

“What is your private opinion, O’Bronte,* of the taste of Red-deer blood? Has it not a
wild twang on the tongue and palate, far preferable to sheep’s-head ? You are absolutely under-
going transformation into.a deer-hound! "With your fore-paws on the flank, your tail bran-
dished like a standard, and your crimson flews licked by a long lambent tongue, red as crimson,
while your eyes express a fierce delight never felt before, and a stifled growl disturbs the star
of your breast—just as you stand now, O’Bronte, might Edwin Landseer rejoice to paint thy
picture, for which, immortal image of the wilderness, the Duke of Bedford would not scruple to
give a draft on his banker for one thousand pounds!”

From this digression—not one, however, altogether irrelevant to the subject discussed
—I pass on to the picture from which an engraving is here introduced. It was painted
for the Queen, and exhibited at the Academy in 1842, under the title of “A Pair of
Brazilian Monkeys,”’ and is now at Osborne House, which also contains numerous
other specimens of Landseer’s works, some of them well-known to the public, and
others which have never appeared in exhibitions—pictures painted expressly for
her Majesty or the late Prince Consort. Naturalists have assigned to this diminutive
animal, the Brazilian monkey, the name of Marmozette, or Marmoset, and also of
Ouistiti: some account of it, as the habits and character of this creature are not gene-
rally known in England, may not prove uninteresting. Guiana and Brazil are the
countries where it is found.

“The fur is long and exquisitely soft, diversified with bold stripes of black upon a ground
of reddish-yellow and white. The tail is long and full; its colour is white, encircled with
numerous rings of a hue so deep that it may almost be called black. A radiating tuft of white
hairs springs from each side of the face, and contrasts well with the jetty hue of the head.

“On account of the beauty of its fur, and the gentleness of its demeanour when rightly
treated, it is frequently brought from its native land, and forced to lead a life of compelled
civilization in foreign climes. It is peculiarly sensitive-to cold, and always likes to have its
house well furnished with soft and warm bedding, which it piles up in a corner, and under
which it delights to hide itself.

“The Marmosets do not seem to be possessed of a very large share of intelligence, yet are
engaging little creatures if kindly treated. They are very fond of flies and other insects, and
will often take a fly from the hand of the visitor. One of these animals with whom I struck up
an acquaintance, took great pleasure in making me catch flies for its use, and taking them

 

* Professor Wilson’s favourite Newfoundland dog.
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THE MARMOZETTES. 49

 

out of my hand. When it saw my hand sweep over a doomed fly, the bright eyes sparkled

with eager anticipation; and when I approached the cage, the little creature thrust its paw

through the bars as far as the wires would permit, and opened and closed the tiny fingers with |
restless impatience. It then insinuated its hand among my closed fingers, and never failed to

find and to capture the imprisoned fly.

“When properly tamed, the Marmoset will come and sit on its owner’s hand, its little paws
clinging tightly to his fingers, and its tail coiled over his hand or wrist. Or it will clamber up
his arm and sit on his shoulder; or, if chilly, hide itself beneath his coat, or even creep into a
convenient pocket.

“The Marmoset has a strange liking for hair, and is fond of playing with the locks of its
owner. One of the little creatures, which was the property of a gentleman adorned with a
large bushy beard, was wont to creep to its master’s face, and to nestle among the thick
masses of hair that covered his chin. Another Marmoset, which belonged to a lady, and was
liable to the little petiilances of its race, used to vent its anger by nibbling the ends of her
ringlets. If the hair were bound round her head, the curious little animal would draw a tress
down, and bite its extremity, as if it were trying to eat the hair by degrees. The same indi-
vidual was possessed of an accomplishment almost unknown among these little monkeys;
natnely, standing on its head.

“Generally, the Marmoset preserves silence ; but if alarmed or irritated, it gives vent toa
little sharp whistle, from which it has gained its name of Ouistiti. It is sufficiently active when
in the enjoyment of good health, climbing and leaping about from bar to bar with an agile
quickness that reminds the observer of a squirrel.

“Its food is both animal and vegetable in character; the animal portion being composed
of various insects, and, it may be, an occasional young bird; and the vegetable diet ranging
through most of the edible fruits. A tame Marmoset has been known to pounce upon a living
gold fish andtoeatit. . . =. -

“ The length of the full-grown Marmoset is from seven to eight inches, exclusive of the tail,
which measures about a foot.”—(Wood’s Illustrated Natural History.)

To the pair of these interesting animals that “ sat”’ for their portraits to Landseer
he has given an expression almost human. Seated on a magnificent pine-apple, they
are intently watching a wasp which has settled near them, as if meditating its seizure.
Scattered about them are some nuts—the remains probably, of a feast. The picture is
small, but every portion is painted with the greatest care and nicety.

In 1859 Landseer sent four pictures to the Academy. One was called ‘‘ Doubtful
Crumbs:” a large mastiff, having picked a huge beef-bone perfectly clean, has fallen
asleep, but still keeps one paw on the bone to guard it from being carried off, though
it is scarcely “‘ doubtful” as to the quantity of “crumbs ”’ it is likely to yield to any dog
bold enough to attempt its capture. A hungry black puppy standing by looks wistfully
at the bare remnant of a feast, with a grotesque expression of interest,—

“Letting I dare not wait upon I would,”

for the animal is afraid to touch it. This puppy, with its tongue eagerly protruding,
oO
50 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

is the point of the picture. The late Mr. E. Bicknell is reported to have paid the artust
£300 for this work; but when his collection was sold, in 1863, the competition was
so great that it realised the large sum of 2,300 guineas, Mr. Wells being the
purchaser.

The second picture of the year 1859 had for its title, “‘ Bran will never put another
stag to bay; and Oscar will no mak’ out by himself. The deer will do fine yet!”’
These words are presumed to be spoken by a Highland deer-stalker, on seeing one
of his dogs killed in the lake by a stag which has taken to the water; and another
dog likely to meet with a similar fate. It is a large canvas, but the subject is not an
agreeable one; and although there is great spirit in the action of the brave stag,
and in that of his equally courageous antagonist, which is preparing to seize the former
—both animals fierce and resolute,—yet the picture is less satisfactorily painted than
many other of the artist’s works of this period.

“‘ The Prize Calf’? comes next in the list: a smaller canvas than either of the others;
but a remarkably cheerful and well-painted picture. A fine calf, which appears to have
had a prize awarded, at some cattle-show, to its owner, is being led over the stepping-
stones of a Highland burn by a buxom yet pretty lass, ‘‘ dressed with an ingenuity most
valuable in pictorial composition ; as, with the exception of the petticoat, to none of the
other garments can a name be given. There is something pleasantly original in the
treatment of the idea.”? When exhibited, the picture seemed to be unfinished, and
before it passed into the hands of its purchaser, the late Mr. E. Bicknell, it must have
been worked upon; for when it was seen again at the sale of that gentleman’s collec-
tion, it certainly bore evidence of additional labour having been bestowed on it. Mr.
Bicknell paid 400 guineas for ‘‘ The Prize Calf;’’ after his death it was knocked down
to Mr. H. Wallis, for the extravagant sum of 1,800 guineas. The picture got into
the possession of Mr. Duncan Fletcher; and when his collection was sold, “‘ The
Prize Calf’’ realised only 1,370 guineas, for which sum Mr. Agnew bought it: even
this was a large price to pay for a work of its class and quality.

“A Kind Star,”’ the affected title given to the fourth subject Landseer exhibited,
affords no kind of clue to the composition—a wounded deer lying on the bank of a
lake, watched over by another, presumed to be the “ kind star.’’

Some of his pictures changed owners during the year 1859 in the sale-rooms of
Messrs. Christie and Manson. A small canvas, “‘The Dead Doe,’’ sold for 165
guineas; ‘‘ Highlander and his Daughter,’’ with a white horse and dogs, all on the
bank of a lake, was sold with the collection of the late Hon. Edmund Phipps for 815
guineas, and was reported to have been bought for the late Marquis of Hertford.
‘Count D’Orsay’s Dog,’”’ with a cat and kitten, also part of the same collection, sold
for 505 guineas. I find no record of these pictures having ever been exhibited,
except in the sale-rooms.
4A FLOOD IN THE HIGHLANDS. Sr.

 

After, as was reported at the time, remaining in the studio of the painter during
the space of seven years, Landsee?’s ‘‘ Flood in the Highlands’’ was seen at the
Academy in 1860; but even then the large canvas—for its dimensions considerably
exceeded those of any picture by him that I remember—seemed to be unfinished.
The incident it delineates occurred in Morayshire, when the waters rose to such a
height in some parts as to compel the cottagers to seek refuge on the roofs of their
dwellings. The details of the disaster in a special locality, the dothce, or public-
house, of one Alick Gordon, are sufficiently saddening; and upon these, to a minute
degree, the painter has dwelt, ‘‘ forgetting that the spectator, as well as Alick, is ready

299

to be harrowed by the ‘ red an’ jawin’ spate. The roof of the house occupies almost
the entire surface of the canvas, so as to preclude any signs of the flood, except in the
terror it creates. It is, therefore, necessary to look closely into the picture before one
can comprehend that the effect produced is caused by a semi-deluge. The principal
figures are the wife of Gordon—the impersonation of despair as she sits rocking an
infant in her lap—and an elderly man, probably her father, who is seated near her, his
understanding so overshadowed by the twilight of a lengthened tale of years, as to be
unable rightly to comprehend the exact state of affairs. So much of their goods and
chattels as could be secured is deposited with them on the thatch; while the pro-
prietor himself is endeavouring to rescue from destruction a grey horse still harnessed
toacart. ‘A couple of ducks are swimming about in a sort of quiet pool under the
eaves of the roof. It is to them a holiday—a red-letter day in their calendar; they
are perfectly happy, and wonder why everybody else cannot be so. These ducks are
the farceurs of the drama; we sympathise profoundly with the poor collie and her
puppies, and can even shed tears with poor Mrs. Gordon in her tribulation; but we
return to the ducks, and see in their happiness an antidote to every painful feeling.”’
And why so? simply from the fact already stated, that we do not see the flood, but
are only left to imagine its existence. Could we only witness the rushing torrents of
waters, and fancy we heard their roar, and the crashing of every opposing object, even
the ducks would command sympathy, and every living creature on the scene would
have deep commiseration. It is only due to the artist to remark that the whole
arrangement of the composition is most skilful, and many parts of it are very solidly
painted.

Among the pictures belonging to Mr. C. R. Leslie, R.A., and sold in 1860, after
his death, were two presented to him by Landseer ; one a study for a white horse,
given as a hint for Rosinante in Leslie’s picture of ‘‘ Don Quixote,” in the possession
of the Earl of Essex, sold for 44 guineas; the other, a goat’s head, which realised 240
guineas, was bought by Mr. Gambart. At the sale, in the same year, of a portion of
the collection of Mr. Wells, of Redleaf, ‘‘The Stonebreaker’s Daughter ”’ passed

into the hands of Mr. Waller for 1,090 guineas.
52 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

‘“‘ The Cavalier’s Pets,’ of which an engraving is here given, is the title given to a
couple of Blenheim spaniels belonging to the late Mr. Vernon, who was rarely seen in
his home without two or three of these beautiful little canine companions, his constant
associates; for he had no family to share with him the comforts and luxuries of his
dwelling. These ‘pets’? may, therefore, be considered family-portraits.

The picture was exhibited at the British Institution in 1845, with the title of
‘King Charles’s Spaniels;’’ it is now in the National Gallery. The commission
for it was given some time previously, when the artist called one day to pay a visit
to Mr. Vernon at his residence in Pall Mall. A rough sketch of the dogs was at
once taken, but a considerable time elapsed without the picture making its appear-
ance, owing to the painter’s numerous prior engagements. At length Landseer and
Mr. Vernon meeting accidentally in the street, the former was reminded of his engage-
ment. Two days afterwards the picture was safely delivered to its owner, just as it now
hangs in the gallery. This fact is mentioned to show the rapidity with which the
artist was sometimes accustomed to work, as he had not touched the canvas when the
subject was alluded to in the street. Yet there is no sign of haste in execution ; it is
spiritedly sketched, and shows enough of care in the finish to make it a valuable
example of the painter’s pencil. The heads are remarkable for their life-like and
vigilant expression; both are turned towards the same point, as if watching the
entrance of some person into the apartment. The accessories introduced, especially
the hat and feather of the age of Cavaliers, justify the title here given to the picture.

Like many another domestic favourite, these two dogs came to an untimely end ;
the light-coloured one met his death by falling from a table, and the other by a fall
through the railings of the staircase in his master’s house, on to the marble-floor below.
Both accidents happened within a comparatively short time of each other. Mr.
Vernon, of course, soon filled up the ‘‘ vacancies;”’ but it is not a little singular that
the last spaniel in his possession died only two or three days before the death of that
gentleman.

This description of dog is the smallest of the spaniel variety ; it is generally known
as the “‘ Blenheim ”’ spaniel, from the breed being for a long time almost entirely the
property of the Marlborough family. They are invariably red and white, or black and
white, with very long ears, short noses, and large, full, black eyes, which, when the
animal is excited, it dilates considerably. Charles I. was much attached to this tribe
of dogs, and Van Dyck frequently introduced them into his pictures of this unfortunate
monarch. The black, and black-and-tan variety, known as “‘ King Charles’s Spaniels,”
were the constant companions of his son, Charles II., who was rarely seen in his walks
without some of these beautiful little creatures at his heels. The late Marchioness of
Londonderry, wife of the eminent statesman so well known in history as Lord Castle-
reagh, was a great lover of animals, both wild and domestic, and owned quite a
 

THE CAVALIER’S PETS

 
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menagerie. When a boy, I frequently saw her walking in the grounds of her mansion
at North Cray, Kent, followed by a whole pack, twenty or thirty, of Blenheims of every
variety.

The instinct, sagacity, and attachment of the dog, are in none more apparent than
in these small spaniels, and the stratagems they will use to effect any particular object
are truly wonderful. It is upon record that, in the year 1792, a gentleman living in
Vere Street, Clare Market, went with his family to Drury Lane Theatre, at about half-
past five in the evening, leaving a “‘ King Charles”’ locked up in the dining-room, to
prevent its getting out during his absence. At eight o’clock his son accidentally
opened the door, the dog, unperceived, watched his opportunity, slipped through the
street-door, and immediately made for the theatre. By some means he got into the
house, and tracked out his master, who was seated nearly in the centre of a very full
pit. TI once had a dog of this kind upwards of fourteen years, having reared it up from
puppyhood, and, without our taking any special pains to educate it, the animal adopted
many of the habits of the family in as marked a degree as woulda child. Thus he
regularly looked for his drink of coffee at the breakfast-table, nor would he go to bed
in the evening till he had his tea at nine o’clock. He preferred drinking out of my cup
to any other, and, in fact, would rarely touch another till he had had a few laps, at
least, out of that he best liked. He knew the dinner-hour perfectly well, and got very
restless if the cook was not quite punctual. When told, by way of pacifying him, to
go and see what preparations were making, he would run to the kitchen barking
vociferously. Of course, he expected some share of the meal. His favourite dish was
curry of any kind, the hot nature of the condiments being no impediment to his eating
as much as we were disposed to give him. Pastry and puddings, and especially plum-
pudding, of every description he seemed thoroughly to relish. When asked if he would
like to go out for a walk, he immediately began to prepare himself by brushing his
long ears with his paws, rolling on the carpet, as if to smooth his silky skin, and per-
forming other acts deemed indispensable to a proper appearance in public. Sunday he
distinguished from the other days of the week by never attempting to accompany any
members of the family who left the house, but sat quietly at a window, if a chair
happened to be near it, waiting their return from church.

Resuming the chronological order of Landseer’s exhibited works, the next picture
to be noticed is “The Shrew Tamed,” in the Academy in 1861. The idea was
evidently borrowed from the success of Rarey, the horse-tamer, who about that time had
become famous. The, canvas in question was a large one, showing the interior of a
well-appointed stable, wherein is seen a young female, a lady to all appearance, who
having subdued into perfect quietness a very beautiful mare, lies down beside it on a
bed of straw, and, with uplifted hand, is prepared to conquer any refractoriness the
animal may yet be disposed to show. ‘In ordinary hands there is nothing here for a

P
54 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

 

picture, yet the artist has made a high class one out of the subject; and, although
admirably painted, especially the horse, that is not the attraction so much as the
gentle calmness which genius has diffused, with the power of fascination, over a
theme that has literally nothing to command attention There was no picture in the
Academy exhibition of that year that drew such crowds of admirers before it as did
this. At a sale at Christie’s in 1866, it became the property of Mr. Eaton, at the
price of 1,430 guineas.

With “The Shrew Tamed,’ Landseer exhibited three water-colour drawings, one
called “The Fatal Duel,’’ the two others, ‘Scenes in the Marquis of Breadalbane’s
Highland Deer-Forest,”’ studies of deer, sketched in with a vigorous pencil.

For many years he had contributed nothing to the British Institution, but in
1861 he sent to the Gallery a picture entitled ‘‘ An Offering.”’ It simply presents a
goat bound and laid upon a pile, as if for a burnt-sacrifice, according to a passage in
the Book of Leviticus :—‘ And he took the goat, which was the sin-offering for the
people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first.” It is a slightly-painted picture,
to which the artist’s name could alone give any real value.

Among the pictures sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. in that year was one by
Landseer, called in the catalogue ‘‘ The Deer in the Lake.’’ It realized 1,000 guineas,
the purchaser being Mr. Robson. At the same time were sold for 260 guineas, to Mr.
Graves, a pair of drawings, entitled respectively, “ Protection,’ and ‘‘ Free Trade;”’
each represents a horse, but of widely different degree in the scale of equine society.
The former shows a splendid riding-horse, held by a well-appointed groom ; the other,
a sturdy farmer with a fine animal ‘adapted for agricultural purposes.’’ These
drawings are. now, or were recently, in the possession of Mr. Henry McConnel,
Cressbrook, Derbyshire. They have been engraved.

In 1862 and 1863 no new work was seen from the studio of this artist; but in the
former year, at the sale of the pictures belonging to the late Mr. Flatou, the well-
known dealer, ‘‘The Watchman,” a favourite bull-dog belonging to the painter, was
sold to Mr. Fletcher for 140 guineas; and at the sale of the collection of water-colour
pictures, formed by Mr. Charles Langton, of Liverpool, ‘‘ Deer-Hounds,”’ a drawing
‘by Landseer, was bought by Mr. Agnew for 170 guineas. In the record of sales in 1863,
must be specially noted his ‘“‘ Highland Shepherd,’’ which, at the disposal of Mr.
Bicknell’s collection, was bought by Mr. Agnew for the sum of 2,230 guineas. It was
stated at the time that its late owner had given only £350 for it. In the same sale
was ‘‘An English Landscape,” by Sir A. W. Callcott, a large and fine picture by the
‘“‘ English Claude,”’ as he was called, in which appears a group of cows luxuriating in
the shallow water of a stream. The picture was painted in 1842, and was sold to
Mr. Knott, of Barnet, for 400 guineas. At the sale of this gentleman’s collection in
1845, it rose as high as 950 guineas, and I believe it then passed into the hands
TIME OF PEACE.

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of Mr. Bicknell; but either before, or soon after, it became his property, Landseer
‘worked up’’ the cattle, and when, after the decease of its owner, it was again offered
to the public, Mr. Agnew had to pay the sum of 2,950 guineas to secure it. Two years
afterwards, namely, in 1865, the picture was once more put up for sale in Mr. Duncan
Fletcher’s collection, when Mr. Agnew was again the purchaser, but at the reduced
price of 2,000 guineas; another instance of the variableness of the picture-market, the
‘“‘turns”’ of which are often so mysterious as to be quite incomprehensible to every
one out of the trade.

A picture by Landseer, sold by auction in 1863, must be recorded here—a ‘“‘ Head
of a Dog,” bought by Mr. Earl for 325 guineas.

Had Landseer never produced any other picture than ‘ Peace,’’ exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1846, and here engraved, it would undoubtedly entitle him to the
highest rank that an artist in his especial department might assume; while they, if
there be any such, who are accustomed to regard him as a mere painter of animals, |
however original in his conceptions and treatment, must, on a close analysis of this
composition, entertain a contrary opinion, if they have eyes to see and minds to |
comprehend. The casual observer would here discern little else than a group of sheep
and goats quietly reposing, and children engaged in some half-idle occupation; but
the work suggests a far wider range of ideas, and is of more extensive application than
an ordinary picture of figures and animals—it is a poem of the pencil.

It may fairly be presumed that its title was not an afterthought: the artist desired _
to give his definition of a ‘“‘ Time of Peace ’’—the name by which he called it—and he
composed his subject with this express intent; just as a poet would arrange the time |
and circumstances of an epic. And first, there is the place—the cliffs which overlook
the harbour of Dover, the nearest port to the country with whose people England has
so frequently waged long and sanguinary wars: any other locality would have told
this part of the story less forcibly and efficiently. Those heights, so often trodden
by the armed sentinel on the watch for hostile squadrons, are now in quiet possession
of the timid sheep, and their companions the goats: even the sea is perfectly

tranquil—
*‘ The winds are all hush’d, and the waves are at rest;

They sleep like the passions in infancy’s breast ; "_

and on its deep blue surface, which reflects the azure of a summer’s bright sky, lazily
float two or three small pleasure-yachts; while from the distant harbour a steamer,
“on no hostile purpose bent,” is departing for the shore on the opposite side of the
Channel, a messenger of friendly international communication. The place and
circumstances thus bear out, and maintain, the painter’s object.

But yet more so are the living objects symbolical of “ Peace.”” The goats in the
foreground have evidently been at work, for they are harnessed, and are now resting
56 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, &.A.
awhile from their labours; the sheep have no desire to go astray, and therefore the
dog, having no duty to perform, has laid himself down to sleep. The most striking
passage of poetical sentiment in the whole picture is the old mortar, rich with the
variegated tints of rust, from the mouth of which a lamb—always an emblem of
‘* Peace ’’—is nibbling some blades of grass that have grown therein. This impressive
incident in the composition reminds one of Samson’s riddle—* Out of the eater came
forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness:’’ that which for many years
had served to take away life, has now become, indirectly, a help to sustain it: ‘it shall
neither hurt nor destroy any more.”’

Passing from the animals to the figures it may be remarked that their occupation
in no way disturbs the serenity of the other portions of the composition. A young
mother and her child have seated themselves on the cliff, and the former, like one
thrifty of her time, has brought a work-basket with her, and is now engaged in
winding a skein of thread held by the child. The boy, probably the care-taker of the
sheep and goats, or, with equal probability, the driver of some goat-cart—not seen in
the picture, but signified by the harness on the goats—which has borne the little girl
up to the spot where we see her, has joined himself to the others, and is watching
their proceedings with apparent interest.

The drawing and painting of the animals are in the artist’s most successful
manner; the caparisons of the goats supply bits of brilliant colour, and the fleeces of
the sheep would satisfy the most enthusiastic admirer of “ South-down”’ wool; while
the execution of the entire work is distinguished, perhaps more than usual, by the
broad and unctuous style of the painter.

The picture, and its companion, “ War,’ which will be referred to presently, form
part of the Vernon Collection in the National Gallery. It may be remarked that both
works have been finely engraved by Mr. T. L. Atkinson, and on a large scale, for
Messrs. Graves and Co.

In 1864 Landseer exhibited at the British Institution « Well-bred Setters,’ an
aristocratic canine group, showing in each component member of it their high pedigree,
good training, and comely appearance; such dogs are to be found only where their
owners are also well-bred. The picture is executed with exceeding delicacy and soft-
ness os manner. So also is the “Piper and Pair of N utcrackers,’’ one of four pictures
contributed by the artist to the Academy exhibition of the same year. The title is
somewhat whimsical, and without some explanation renders the subject almost unin-
telligible. ane ‘‘piper”’ is a splendid bullfinch, which is singing his sweetest song
belete two squirrels, the pair of “nutcrackers ;”’ all three in the midst of a mass of
foliage. The charm of this picture is the exquisite softness of texture given to the
pretty trio. The canvas is comparatively small, that is, it is cabinet-size; but it was
currently reported, at the time, that Mr. Huth, who purchased it, paid no less a sum
 

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“MAN PROPOSES. GOD DISPOSES.’ 57

 

than 1,000 guineas for it: one publication, usually well informed on such subjects,
stated it as high as £1,700. It has been engraved as a large print by Mr. S. Cousins,
R.A., and much smaller by Mr. G. Zobel.

Another picture of the year left a far different impression on the mind of the
spectators. ‘ Man proposes, God disposes,” the title given to it, is a tragic poem on
canvas. The scene lies in the arctic regions, where “ Franklin and his companions
found, in death, snow for their winding-sheet and their grave.’? Two hungry bears,
prowling about in search of food, have discovered the relics of the unfortunate
expedition—some human bones, a fragment of a mast, a piece of sail-cloth, a tele-
scope, and a flag. One of the savage brutes, as if enraged at finding no more
acceptable prey, is tearing the union-jack of England into pieces, while the other
ferociously crunches the rib-bone of one of the sailors who lost their lives in that
inhospitable climate. The cold mountains of ice, vast and desolate, are illumined by
gleams of sunlight. A scene more impressive for its pathos and terror it is scarcely
possible to imagine; and it is all the more so for being represented on a large scale.
It became the property of Mr. Coleman, who paid, it is said, 2,500 guineas for it.

The other two contributions were ‘‘ Windsor Park,’”’ with deer, afterwards engraved
by Mr. T. L. Atkinson; and “ Pensioners,”’ also engraved, by Mr. F. Stacpoole.

Among the pictures and drawings belonging to Messrs. Fores, printsellers and
publishers in Piccadilly, which were sold in 1864, in consequence of a dissolution of
partnership, were two drawings by Landseer; one was called ‘‘ The Death of the False
Herald,’’ a scene from Scott’s “ Quentin Durward,” and described in the catalogue as
a “ most elaborate and unique miniature example in water-colours, painted thirty years
ago.” It was bought by Messrs. Agnew for 250 guineas. The other, entitled “ The
Critical Moment,” realised 185 guineas. In 1870 the former work was sold, in the
collection of the late Mr. W. Delafield, of Knightsbridge, for the same sum it fetched
six years previously, the purchasers again being Messrs. Agnew.

The engraving—‘ War’’—here introduced, is from the picture painted as the
companion work to ‘‘ Peace,” to which reference has just been made. As we
contemplate the horse and his rider suddenly struck down in their gallantry and
strength, the ruined cottage and the devastated garden, they speak to us of what,
practically, our country knows nothing ; and the horror of the scene forcibly recalls to

memory the words of Bishop Porteous :—

“War is a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at.”

For more than a century England has been mercifully spared the calamities aad
Continent: no tempest of hostile

miseries of war, as experienced by the nations of the
This is a blessing for which she

armies has burst on her green and peaceful fields.
Q
58 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

cannot feel too grateful, and which every one ought fervently to pray may ever be her
glad inheritance. “ Yet,’’ says a profound writer of the last century, ‘“‘it is wonderful
with what coolness and indifference the greater part of mankind see war commenced.
Those that hear of it at a distance, or read of it in books, but have never presented its
evils to their minds, consider it as little more than a splendid game—a proclamation,
an army, a battle, and a triumph. Some, indeed, must perish in the successful field,
but they die upon the bed of honour, resign their lives amidst the joys of conquest,
and, filled with England’s glory, smile in death!

‘The life of a modern soldier is ill-represented by heroic fiction. War has means of
destruction more formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands and
ten thousands that perished in our late contests with France and Spain, a very small
part ever felt the stroke of an enemy; the rest languished in tents and ships amidst
damps and putrefaction ; pale, torpid, spiritless, and helpless; gasping and groaning,
unpitied among men, made obdurate by long continuance of hopeless misery; and
were at last whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean, without notice and without
remembrance. By incommodious encampments and unwholesome stations, where

courage is useless and enterprise impracticable, fleets are silently dispeopled, and
armies sluggishly melted away.’ *
Johnson died in 1784; and if he drew such a picture from what happened before,

and during, his own lifetime, how would he have written concerning the wars that
followed the outbreak of the great Revolution in France almost to the present day ?
But he knew nothing of Marengo, of Jena, and of Austerlitz; he heard not of the

“ Half a million of heroes, the glory of Gaul,”

whose bones were left on the snow-covered plains of Russia: he rejoiced not with the
victors at Trafalgar and Waterloo, nor with those who drove back the eagle of France
which had desolated the vineyards of Spain and Portugal. The days and the nights of
more than half a century had thrown successive light and shadow over his grave in
Westminster Abbey ere the cannon thundered at the gates of Sebastopol, the armies of
England were avenging the atrocities of Indian fanaticism, the fratricidal contest was
deluging with blood the continent of Northern America, and the well-disciplined hosts
of Germany were scattering, like leaves before the autumn blast, the brave but over-
matched legions of France. All that Johnson lived to know was nothing compared
with the havoc and desolation which the world has since witnessed :—

“ Hark to that war, whose swift and deafening peals
In countless echoes through the mountains ring,

 

* Dr. Johnson’s “ Thoughts on Transactions concerning the Falkland Islands.”
WAR

 
 
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TIME OF WAR. 59

 

Startling pale Midnight on her starry throne !
Now swells the intermingling din; the jar,
Frequent and frightful, of the bursting bomb ;
The falling beam, the shriek, the groan, the shout,
The ceaseless clangour, and the rush of men
Infuriate with rage !—Loud and more loud
The discord grows ; till pale Death shuts the scene,
And o’er the conqueror and the conquered draws
His cold and bloody shroud.”—

SHELLEY.

Less attractive—but only on account of the painful nature of the subject—and less
poetic, by reason of its reality, than the picture of “ Peace,” that of ‘“‘War’”’
is a composition more dramatic; still the representation is little else than an episode in
the day’s battle, but as convincing to the understanding and as palpable to the eye of
the results of war. as if the painter had depicted a battle-field strewed with the dying
and the dead. We require no further proof of what two hostile armies effect when
pitted against each other than the four objects, men and horses, stretched on the
ground amid the blazing ruins of some dwelling-house.

“ And see! on this rent mount, where daisies sprung,
A battle-steed beside his rider flung :
Oh! never more he’ll rear with fierce delight,
Roll his red eyes, and rally for the fight !
Pale on his bleeding breast the warrior lies,
While from his ruffed lids the white, swelled eyes

Ghastly and grimly stare upon the skies.” —
R. MONTGOMERY.

Landseer had probably in his mind, when designing the picture, that episode in the
Battle of Waterloo when the British Horse Guards and some regiments of French
cuirassiers met each other by the farm of Hougoumont. Two men lie dead; one,
judging from the silken banner of the trumpet, is probably intended for a trumpeter of
the regiment of Horse Guards; the other is a French cuirassier. One of the horses
also appears to be dead; while its companion is wounded, and vainly endeavours to
extricate itself from the surrounding mass of débris. The head of this animal is the
great point of the picture, forming, as it does, a striking contrast in its attitude and
fiery expression to that of the other, whose eyes are glazed over by the film of death.
If pictures could point such a moral as would dissuade nations from engaging in war.
surely this of Landseer’s must powerfully aid in doing so; for who, even among the
bravest of earth’s warriors, that has the feelings of a man, would not desire the speedy
accomplishment of the prophecy,—‘ Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.”’
60 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

The Royal Academy exhibition of 1865 contained four of Landseer’s pictures ;
among them, and by far the most popular, was ‘‘ The Connoisseurs,”’ certainly one of
his most felicitous ideas. Occupied in sketching—from nature, it may be presumed—
is the artist himself, a half-length portrait; or, perhaps, it should rather be called a
three-quarter, for the sketching-frame rests on his knees. Looking over and almost
resting upon, each shoulder, are the heads of two magnificent hounds, the
‘Connoisseurs,’ examining with thoughtful and critical eyes, the transference to
paper of some of their fraternity. The expression of the animals’ faces is exquisitely
comic in spite of their gravity. The picture has been engraved by Mr. S. Cousins.
‘Prosperity’? and ‘ Adversity,’’ a pair, accompanied ‘“‘ The Connoisseurs’’ in the
gallery. The former of the two is personated by a horse, glossy, and well cared-for,
waiting for its mistress to take her morning-ride. ‘‘ Adversity’? shows the same
animal reduced in old age to a hack, and doomed to servile drudgery. It is not only
of horses that the moral here taught may be applied; there are bipeds whose history
might furnish a narrative equally truthful. The fourth picture had for its title,
‘* Déjefiiner a la Fourchette.’’ Somehow it escaped my notice when exhibited.

Once more, and for the last time, pictures by Landseer were seen on the walls of
the British Institution in Pall Mall. In 1865 he contributed three works. As I was not
fortunate enough to see them, I must borrow the notice of a cotemporary critic :—‘“ Sir
Edwin Landseer tells his story with equal pathos and greater delicacy. ‘An Event in
the Forest’ is the death of a stag, shot in a rocky ravine, and lying among the
boulders left by a mountain-torrent. A fox keeps guard over the prey, and an eagle
wings its way, scenting food. The subject, which has the charm of a poem, refined in
sentiment, and arousing to sympathy, is painted in Landseer’s last or vaporous
manner, slight and suggestive in execution, the broad results struck out with rapid
liquid brush, the details just indicated, but not elaborated. «No Hunting till the
Weather breaks,’ by the same artist, is in painting more solid, but less pleasing.
Landseer’s third picture, ‘Dear Old Boz,’ painted for Her Majesty, ranks among the
most careful and commendable of his works. In the painting of this Skye terrier, we
see what detailed finish Landseer would reach, did time permit the carrying out of
pictures which are sometimes left, in the pressure of professional engagements, little
more than ideas skilfully sketched. ‘Dear Old Boz,’ indeed, is a study which every
artist should attentively examine. No man knows better how to get softness and yet
substance ; transparent depth, yet tangible surface; suggestive and cloudy haziness,
yet definite form and rotundity. This comes from knowledge of nature, and the
practice in Art that makes perfect. The mode in which the terrier’s shaggy coat has
been painted is specially worthy of observation. Look not only at the softness, but at
the depth, of the hair, layer lying beneath layer, each lock of a length and a curve
which called for the artist’s consummate dexterity of execution, as he laid down with
HER MAJESTY AT OSBORNE IN 1866. 61

 

 

rapid brush the shadows, and then touched in with delicate and playful pencil the top-
most hairs which catch the highest lights. This picture will be remembered in future
years as a work completed with more than usual deliberation. The colour is not
fortunate; it is a little too dun and dead.’’

In the following year he contributed five pictures to the Academy,— Mare and
Foal—Indian Tent, &c.,’’ ‘‘ Lady Godiva’s Prayer,’’ ‘‘ Odds and Ends—Trophy for a
Halt,” ** The Chaeé,”’ and “Stag at Bay,”’ the last a large drawing in crayons. None
of these works call for particular notice, except the ‘‘ Lady Godiva’ picture, which was
introduced to the spectator by the following quotation :—“ Leofric, Earl of Murcia, had
imposed such heavy taxes on the citizens of Coventry, that his lady, Godiva, moved by
their entreaties, so much importuned her lord to remit them, that he consented on
condition she would ride naked through the city at mid-day. This condition humanity
induced her to accept.’’ The picture added nothing to the artist’s reputation; the
subject was altogether out of his line, and even had it been within his legitimate range,
it is treated in a manner by no means in accordance with good taste.

At the sale, in 1866, of the pictures belonging to Mr. Flatou, two small works by
Landseer were included; one, called ‘‘No Escape,’ was bought by Mr. Lewis for
£131; the other, a study for the shepherd in the ‘‘ Highland Drovers,” bought by
Mr. Halliday for £102. The former appears to have subsequently got again into
Mr. Flatou’s possession, for after his death it appeared in the catalogue of his stock
sold, by Messrs. Christie, in 1868, when it realised but 100 guineas; Mr. Leatham
being the purchaser.

The death of Sir Charles L. Eastlake at the close of 1865 left vacant the
President’s chair in the Royal Academy. The members found some little difficulty
in finding a suitable successor: the post was offered, it was publicly reported, to
D. Maclise, who declined it; it was then proposed to Landseer, who accepted it, and
his name as President was actually, I heard, enrolled on the books of the Academy; a
week’s consideration, however, of the onerous duties connected with the position,
induced him to recall his consent, and Mr., now Sir, Francis Grant was elected.

There was a painting by Landseer in the Academy exhibition of 1867, which drew

towards it very many sympathising spectators. ‘‘ Her Majesty at Osborne in 1866”

was the first picture of the Queen, beyond a mere portrait, the public had seen since the
irreparable loss both she and the nation sustained by the death of the Prince Consort.
Her Majesty is represented on horseback, nearly in front of Osborne House, reading °
some letters brought to her by an attendant. Seated on a bench at a short distance is
one of the ladies in waiting. I had an opportunity of seeing this large picture again
a year or two ago, and it appeared to have lost much of its colour, though originally
it could not be called brilliant.

Two other pictures, respectively entitled ‘‘ Deer of Chillingham Park, Northumber-

R
62 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

land,’ and “ Wild Cattle of Chillingham,’’ were his other contributions of the year ;
in both, the animals were of rather extraordinary size. The latter was stated in the
catalogue to be the property of the Earl of Tankerville, and was introduced with the
following lines :—

“ Mightiest of all the beasts of chase

That roam in woody Caledon,

Crashing the forest in his race,
The mountain-bull comes rushing on.
Fierce, on the hunter’s quiver’d band,
He rolls his eye of swarthy glow,
Spurns, with black hoof and horn, the land,
And tosses high his mane of snow.”—
SIR WALTER SCOTT.

The annexed engraving, ‘‘ The Stag at Bay,’’ is from a picture exhibited at the
Academy in 1846, which was either painted for, or bought by, Lord Godolphin. It is
a large canvas, showing a Highland lake, on the border of which a stag has been
brought to bay by a couple of the famous breed of Scotch deerhounds. The stag is as
noble a specimen of the forest herd as Landseer ever delineated, or met with when
stalking in the Scottish Highlands; for even in this hour of its agony and peril there is
a grandeur of bearing worthy of the monarch of glen and mountain. One of its
opponents the gallant fellow has placed, at any rate for the present, hors de combat; it
lies on its back howling, as if in the agony of death; the other dog “‘ gives tongue”’
as loudly as it can. The menace of the stag and the excitement and barking of the
hound are described by the most natural action; and, in the case of the latter, by the
erection of the hair on its back. With such truth and spirit is the whole painted, that
one can scarcely avoid entering into the interest of the scene, and with all our sympathy
centred in the animal which has so bravely defended itself against its assailants. The
picture forcibly recalls to mind some stanzas of an old song—it was old in my young
days, when I helped to swell the chorus of ‘‘ On, on to the Chase : ’’—

“On, on to the chase, for the bugle is sounding,
The wild deer has started, and flies like the wind ;
Over brushwood and brake with fleet foot he is bounding,
Mocking huntsman and hound, who toil panting behind.

“He has clear’d the dark forest; its branches still quiver,
Where his wide-spreading antlers have toss’d them aside ;
And the foam is yet white on the brink of the river,
Where, desperate and madden’d, he plunged in the tide.

“But, alas! noble victim, thy spirit is failing,
Thy struggle for life and for freedom is vain;
Thy courage, thy swiftness, thy strength unavailing,
Thou never shalt bound through the forest again.”
THE STAG AT BAY

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RENT-DAY IN THE WILDERNESS. 63

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The prevalent tone of colour in this picture is grey. The background opens into
distance, showing the opposite shores of the lake, and an approaching storm. If one
could only get rid of the sense of animal-suffering which the subject but too forcibly
suggests, the work would command unmixed admiration.

“SCENE: Aa na Mullich, head of Loch AYP, 1522);

“After the defeat of the Stuart army of 171 5, at Sheriff Muir, Colonel Donald Murchison,
to whom the Earl of Seaforth confided his confiscated estates in Ross-shire, defended them for

ten years, and regularly transmitted the rents to his attainted and exiled chief, ‘A more
disinterested hero never lived.’ ”

This passage, from R. Chambers’s “Annals of the Domestic History of Scotland,”
supplied Landseer with a subject for a large picture, entitled ‘“‘Rent-day in the
Wilderness,” exhibited at the Academy in 1868. The work was a commission from
the late Sir Roderick I. Murchison, who bequeathed it to the Scottish National
Gallery. Sir Roderick was, I believe, descended from the Colonel Murchison ©
whose fidelity to his chieftain the picture illustrates; yet it can by no means
rank among the painter’s best works; and certainly contrasts very unfavourably with
a much smaller canvas, exhibited at the same time; this bore no title, but instead,
was introduced by some words spoken, presumably, by a “stalker”? or keeper :—
‘Well, sir, if the deer gat the ball, sure’s death Chevy will not leave him.” A
wounded stag is watched by a hound; both lie on a waste of snow. The animals
are represented with the truth of texture and skilful composition that mark the best
period of the painter’s career.

At the sale, in 1868, of the collection of the late Mr. James Fallows, of Manchester,
a small picture by Landseer, representing ‘A Bull Terrier,’’ with a bone and a red
pan, was bought by Messrs Agnew for 210 guineas.

Among the studies Landseer made for the bronze lions that decorate the Nelson
column in Trafalgar Square—works that will presently be referred to—were two which,
in the form of oil-paintings, were exhibited at the Academy in 1869. They are but
sketches, executed with apparent rapidity, yet admirable for anatomical knowledge and
character in movement and action. Nothing of their kind could be finer than these
studies. Another contribution from the same hand exhibited with them—and, judging
from the crowd of visitors who daily gathered before it, the most popular picture in the
whole gallery—was ‘‘ The Swannery invaded by Sea-eagles.’’ The subject is assumed
to have been suggested by the following anonymous lines :—

* As rapt I gazed upon the sedgy pool,
Where in majestic calm serenely sail’d
Its arch-neck’d princes in their snow-white plumes—
Cleaving the air with sharp and strident sound,
64 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

Down swoop’d the tyrants of the sea-girt caves,
Screaming for blood, and in their ancient holds
‘Flutter’d the Volsces’ of that tranquil reign.”

.

This is a large picture, and its size magnifies the horrors of the fearful conflict between
the feathered combatants; if that may be called a battle in which victory can never for
a moment be considered doubtful: it is nothing but a murderous onslaught by the
fierce birds of mountain and rock on the comparatively defenceless dwellers on lake and
silvery river. It has been remarked of this picture, that ‘‘it is certainly one of
Landseer’s most brilliant thoughts, dramatized with amazing effect, and painted with a
master hand. The action and movement of the piece are magnificent, and the situation
is to the last degree thrilling. Perhaps the scene is rather over-redolent of horror ; the
massacre indeed of these noble birds must be accounted a deed almost too cruel and
terrible to be excused even in the fiction and licence usually permitted to the pictorial
arts. In technical qualities the picture partakes of the painter’s merits and defects
alike ; his method of treatment has by this time all but degenerated into mannerism.
It must be conceded that great is the skill shown in composition, that the leading lines
are well-disposed, the masses capitally managed, and that, moreover, no circumstance
or detail has been omitted which might add to the desired consummation of pictorial
effect. Splendidly painted are the wings of the eagles, the black feet of the white
swans, and the entire work, from beginning to end, has been conducted with unrivalled
mastery. Still, we suppose the picture is altogether an impossibility in nature: the
whole thing looks artificial, as if got up for display and sensation.’’ Without
attempting to explain the motives which might have tempted the artist to paint a
picture of a character so repugnant to humanity, it unquestionably manifests the
characteristics of a sensational work. In colour, too, it is not agreeable; and what it
shows of this quality is poor and opaque.

“The Ptarmigan Hill,’”’ the fourth picture exhibited in that year, contrasts most
favourably, both in subject and style of execution, with that just noticed; here peace
succeeds to war, and serenity to tempest. Birds and landscape are painted in a
manner worthy of Landseer’s best epoch.

To the Academy exhibition of 1870 he sent five works, of which the first in
the order of the catalogue was ‘“Voltigeur: winner of the Derby and St. Leger,
1850. The property of the Earl of Zetland.’’ To the title was added, as a
motto descriptive of the picture, “A Cat may look at a King;” and so a cat
is introduced on the scene, meditating, it may be presumed, on the points and
beauty of the fleet racer—a noble animal, in every way represented to the life.
Landseer never painted a horse more truthfully and attractively than this portrait of
Voltigeur. In another room hung a large canvas entitled ‘ Queen Victoria meeting
the Prince Consort on his return from Deer-stalking in 1850.’ When this picture
ROUT OF COMUS AND HIS BAND. 65

 

 

 

was first coninenced I cannot say, but it was certainly in a very unfinished state
when exhibited; nor did it then seem to be in a condition which any amount of
subsequent labour could convert into a thoroughly satisfactory production.

In wane Doctor’s Visit to Poor Relations at the Zoological Gardens,” another
contribution to the year’s exhibition, the painter reverts to that humorous manner of
representing the animal tribes which characterises so many of his earlier works. The
physician, personified by a large monkey, is soothingly nursing a youngster of the
race; while a black adult monkey sits above them, and devours an orange. The
grotesque group might almost pass for human beings, from the way in which they are
placed on the canvas, as if Landseer intended his picture to be a development of the
Darwinian theory. The painting of these animals is marvellously true to nature. His
two remaining works—‘ Deer,”’ and ‘“‘ Lassie ”’—call for no special remark.

The ‘‘ Rout of Comus and his Band’”’ owes its origin to a commission given, about
1843, by the Queen and the late Prince Consort to Landseer and several others of the
most distinguished artists of that date, to decorate the pavilion in the grounds of
Buckingham Palace with fresco-paintings. Landseer selected for illustration a passage
from ‘*Comus,’”’ a poem that has furnished subjects for numerous works, both of
sculpture and painting. The picture, from which the annexed engraving is taken, is
the original finished sketch for the fresco: it passed into the hands of the late
Mr. Jacob Bell, who bequeathed it to the nation, and it is now at South Kensington.

The drama or masque of ‘‘ Comus’”’ was founded on an incident that happened to
the sons and daughter of the Earl of Bridgewater, which Milton worked up into an
imaginative story. The masque was first performed in 1634, at Ludlow Castle, where
the Earl then resided. Comus, his dwelling-place and his enchantments, are thus

described :—

“ Within the navel of this hideous wood,
Immured in cypress-shades, a sorcerer dwells,
Of Bacchus and of Circe born, great Comus,
Deep skill’d in all his mother’s witcheries ;
And here to every thirsty wanderer,

By sly enchantment gives his baneful cup,

With many murmurs mix’d, whose pleasing poison
The visage quite transforms of him that drinks,
And the inglorious likeness of a beast,

Fixes instead, unmoulding reason’s mintage
Characterised in the face.” * *

The picture, as its title indicates, represents the defeat of Comus, whose enchant-

ments have transformed into monsters the unfortunate travellers through the wood in

which he has taken up his abode.

\
66 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R&.A.

 

* Their human countenance,
Th’ express image of the gods, is changed
Into some brutish form of wolf, or bear,
Of ounce, or tiger, hog, or bearded goat,
All other parts remaining as they were.”

A young lady, having heedlessly wandered into the domains of the sorcerer, falls
into his hands, but cannot be induced by him to drink of the baneful cup. While
Comus is using all his blandishments and threats to entice her to taste, her two
brothers, who have long been searching for their sister, rush in with drawn swords,
wrest the glass out of his hand, and break it against the ground. His nondescript
band at first make a show of resistance, but are all put to the rout.

The remarks made with reference to Landseer’s ‘‘ Titania’’—to which picture, by
the way, his ‘‘Comus”’ would form an excellent pendant—apply equally to the latter.
There must always be in the nondescript and unnatural combination of the human and
the brute forms, a presentation to the mind of what is both disagreeable to the eye and
repugnant to the feelings. Some individuals can, more easily than others, rid them-
selves of this disturbing influence; such will examine without any great measure of
mental disquietude this masterly composition; while even those to whom this
burlesque scene is far from pleasant in itself, cannot fail to admire the artistic merits of
the work. Comus occupies the centre of the picture; he is in full retreat with the

_ others, his countenance indicating extreme disquietude at the loss of his supernatural

powers ; for his rod of enchantment, which he still carries in his hand, has become, as
it were, a broken reed. A female figure of beautiful form, as her thin covering of
spangled drapery shows, clings to him as if she would retard his flight. Round the
pair is a motley group, hurrying as rapidly as they are able in the mé/e from the
apparent destruction awaiting them. Some of the party have already been struck
down, on the right of the composition, where one of the brothers is seen making a
vigorous onslaught. The scene lies in an apartment of a stately palace, “set out with
all manner of deliciousness and tables spread with all dainties.’”? The room is now all
in confusion; the golden goblets and the luscious fruits are scattered on the flooring.
In the background, between two massive pillars wreathed with chaplets, is seen the
attendant spirit, who has guided the brothers to the enchanter’s place of abode,
and taught them by what means they may overcome him and rescue their sister.

A noticeable feature in the treatment of the subject is the aptitude with which the
heads are fitted to the bodies of the personages; those of delicately-formed animals
being placed on the female and other slight figures ; and stout, burly bodies wear the
heads of large and ferocious beasts.

In 1871 Landseer did not exhibit; but in the following year he contributed three
pictures, each of which showed that though the painter was approaching towards his
 

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THE BAPTISMAL FONT, 67

 

seventieth year, neither mind nor hand manifested any very significant signs of
weakness. One of the three subjects was “The Lady Emily Peel with her favourite
Dogs,” as graceful a portrait as the artist ever put on canvas. Her two dogs are
placed one on each side of the lady, and she is lecturing one of them, which in his
gambols has overturned a flower-pot: the delinquent animal seems to listen to his
mistress’s chiding with submission and due penitence, while its companion looks at her
as if deprecating any feeling of anger, however justly merited. Another picture, a
large canvas, was entitled ‘The Baptismal Font,’”? and it may be regarded as
somewhat remarkable that almost the last work he placed before the public is, as was
said of it, “inexpressibly rich in Christian allusion :”’ it is, in fact, a sacred allegory,
more original, and ‘‘ more elaborately comprehensive than any essay of the like nature
which has ever appeared in Christian art; and so impressively set forth, that it might
fitly be appropriated as an altar-piece.”” Round and beneath a large font standing in
an open space of ground, is a flock of sheep and lambs, typifying, it may be assumed,
those of the Gospel, and imbued with every taint of sin, from that of the youngest
lamb to the deep die of the blackest sheep. But in their respective positions about and
under the font, all seem to confess their faith in the invitation of the Saviour. The
sides of the basin are ornamented with a mark of Christ and symbolic attributes of the
atonement ; while doves have alighted on the edge of the font, and in the sky appears
the rainbow of promise and of hope. The sentiment of the composition is so entirely
opposed to anything which ever appeared from the hand of the artist, that its
authenticity might almost be questioned: yet no one would doubt his workmanship.

The third picture of the year, ‘The Lion and the Lamb,” is said to have been
suggested by Sir Edwin seeing a lamb lying incidentally near the model of one of the
Trafalgar Square lions. The painting when exhibited bore evident signs of being
unfinished; but the design, and the treatment, so far as the latter was carried, were
worthy of the painter. It is by no means improbable that, if the work had again come
under his hand, he would have so transformed it as to make it illustrative of Isaiah’s
well-known prophecy, “‘ and the lion shall lie down with the lamb.”’

The present year, 1873, brought two pictures from Landseer’s studio to the
Academy exhibition : one, ‘‘ Tracker,’’ recalled to memory some of his works of long
by-gone days. ‘‘Tracker’’ is a collie-dog, which his master has left in charge of his
bonnet and Bible while he has gone over the hills, possibly in search of some wanderers
from his flock. The faithful animal has his eyes fixed on an open page of the sacred
volume with a singular expression of curiosity and intelligence. The other picture had
this title in the catalogue: ‘Sketch of her Majesty the Queen. (Unfinished.) er
Majesty has not sat for the likeness.’ The Queen is seated on a white pony. The sketch
was, it is believed, made several years ago; and in the unfinished state in which it was

exhibited cannot be justly made amenable to criticism.
68 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

The career of Sir Edwin Landseer has thus been traced, mainly through his
principal exhibited works, from its outset to its close; but the list, long as it is, by no
means includes the whole of his life’s labours. There must be a large number of his
pictures which have passed direct from the studio of the artist into the hands of their
respective owners. Her Majesty possesses several, independent of those already
pointed out; among them, notably, is one entitled ‘‘ Windsor Castle in the Present
Time,”’ painted, I believe, about 1844, and engraved by T. L. Atkinson. It is an
interior view, and shows the late Prince Consort, in sportsman’s dress, seated in an
apartment of the castle, with a quantity of dead game on the floor, which attracts the
attention of the Queen and of two or three of the royal children—then very young.
This is, certainly, one of the most pleasing pictures of these exalted personages, en
famille, Landseer painted. Another work in the royal collection at Osborne, where the
majority of the modern pictures are hung, is ‘‘ A Highland Lassie.”’

_In the possession of private collectors may be mentioned, among others, ‘“ Bringing
Home the Deer,” and ‘“ Bull-dogs worrying a Pig,’’ at Burwood, the seat of. Mr. J.
Walter, M.P.; ‘“‘ Highland Game,” and ‘‘ A Deerhound,” in the collection of Mr. T.
Miller, Preston—the first of these was formerly in the possession of the late Duchess ot
Bedford ; “ The Vigilant Sentinel,” ‘‘ Rat-catching,”’ and “ Waiting for the Countess,”’
belong to Mr. Chapman, of Mottram, in Cheshire; ‘ Intruding Puppies” is in the
collection of Mr. S. Mendel, Manchester; ‘‘ Dog with a Wild Duck,’”’ in the Grosvenor
Gallery; ‘‘Dead Game,” and ‘Cat surprised by a Dog,’’ in the possession of the
family of Sir Charles Coote; Mr. J. Chapman, Manchester, has “ Dog watching
Packages—Post-horses in the Distance,” signed and dated 1821; consequently painted
when the artist was in his nineteenth year. Waugen says of this work, ‘The
truth, extraordinary power, and careful execution in a good zmpasto, show how early
the powers of this painter were developed.’”’ In the same collection are a “ Portrait
of a Dog, looking up”’—of wonderful truth; and ‘Three Dogs watching a Ferret,”’
which is unearthing a rabbit—‘ of the most delicate observation of nature, especially
the white dog, and of masterly carrying out in a very clear and forcible tone.”

Besides the pictures already referred to as being the property of the nation, there
are at South Kensington, “The Dog and the Shadow,” exhibited at the British
Institution, in 1826; “Sancho Panza and Dapple,”’ the latter about to eat a crust his
masters offers him, dated 1824; ‘‘ The Angler’s Guard,” a large brown Newfoundland
dog and a white Italian greyhound, watching their master’s fish-basket, &c., exhibited
at the British Institution in 1824; ‘Comical Dogs,” two wiry-haired terriers, life size,
seated side by side, one wearing a Scotch bonnet, the other a woman’s cap—the latter
dog has a short pipe in his mouth ; exhibited at the British Institution in 1836.
 

 

LANDSEER A SCULPTOR.

 

 

ANDSEER turning sculptor!’’ Such was the incredulous remark which
others, no doubt, equally with myself, heard in Art-society, when it
was currently reported that the painter had received a commission to
model the lions for the Nelson column in Trafalgar Square. Had

. the order been for a picture or pictures of the “king of beasts,’ no

one would have ventured to question its propriety; but few thought that the hand

which had such mastery over the pencil could be in any degree as effective in working
the clay into a ‘thing of life.’ Men seem to have forgotten that Michael Angelo
and other great painters of olden time were also famous as sculptors.

A few words on the history of the Nelson Column, which Landseer may be said to
have completed, will scarcely be out of place here, although the story is anything but
creditable to the country in connection with our national monuments and memorials.

Considerably more than thirty years had passed from the date of the Battle of
Trafalgar before any efforts appear to have been made to raise an out-door memorial in
honour of our great naval commander; but about the year 1838 the matter was taken
in hand, a committee formed, and subscriptions were collected; the sum of £30,000 being
the amount the committee considered sufficient for the purpose. Architects and
sculptors were invited to send in designs for the work, which it was understood the
Government would allow to be erected in the then new Trafalgar Square. Of the
large number of designs forwarded in answer to the invitation, that selected was a lofty
Corinthian column, by Mr. Railton, an architect. Objections were taken to the
award, and a second competition was called for, and was amply responded to; but
Mr. Railton, who in the interim had made some alterations in his first design, was
again successful, and in due time the column was erected The statue of Nelson, made
T

 

 

 

 
70 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

of the metal of a number of guns recovered from the wreck of the Royal George, is the
work of the late E. Baily, R.A. But the amount subscribed had reached only to
£17,000; and it was evident that the ornamental bas-reliefs, and the four lions at the
corners of the plinth, which had been assigned to Mr. Lough, must be postponed till
further funds were supplied. The money already expended, other subscriptions having
come in while the “ pillar,’’ as some critics called it, was being built, the committee, in
1844, proposed asking Government for a sum of £10,000 or £12,000 to complete the
work. The application was so far successful that Parliament voted the same year
£8,000 towards the amount required. Still no progress was made with the work ; and
it was not till the close of the following year that the bas-reliefs for the pedestal
illustrating Nelson’s four great exploits—at Cape St. Vincent, Copenhagen, the Nile, and
Trafalgar—were respectively entrusted to Messrs. M. S. Watson, Woodington, Carew,
and Ternouth; Mr. Lough being still designated as the sculptor of the lions. The four
sculptors of the bas-reliefs were to receive £1,000 each for their respective works. In
1847 a further sum of £2,000 was voted by the House of Commons towards the
payment of expenses; Lord Morpeth, on the part of the Government, stating that he
‘was afraid even that sum would not finish the monument, as it would only complete
£10,000 out of £12,000 estimated to be necessary for that purpose: Indeed, if the
original design were carried out, the expense would be £16,000 or £17,000.’ Towards
the close of the year 1849 Carew’s bas-relief, ‘‘ The Death of Nelson at Trafalgar,”’
was placed on that side of the pedestal which faces Charing Cross; in the spring of
the following year appeared Woodington’s “ Battle of the Nile’’ on the opposite side ;
and in 1851 ‘“‘ The Bombardment of Copenhagen,’’ by Ternouth, who died about two
years previously, was placed on the side looking towards the Strand. About the
middle of the year 1854 the remaining pedestal, that fronting Cockspur Street, obtained
its bas-relief, ‘‘Nelson receiving the Sword of the Captain of the San Josef at the
Action off Cape St. Vincent,’ from Watson’s design, who completed the model just
before his death in 1847. The work was subsequently carried out by Mr. Woodington.

Some evil genius seemed almost from the first to have woven a spell round
the testimonial to the hero of the Nile and Trafalgar; for, in addition to the
wearisome delays towards completion, and before the whole of the bas-reliefs were
in their places, the Attorney-General was ordered, on the part of the Government, to
prosecute certain contractors for casting the metal, on the charge of having used
inferior materials to those they had agreed to employ. The jury returned a verdict of
guilty, and Lord Campbell, who presided at the trial, sentenced one of the firm, the
youngest member of the three, to a month’s imprisonment, and the remaining two
members to three months’ incarceration.

The public still waited for some tidings of the lions, but nothing was heard of them
till Parliament met in 1857, when, in reply to a question put to Sir Benjamin Hall.
THE LIONS IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE. qt

 

 

then at the head of the Board of Works, he stated that “a sum of 44,000 was required
to complete the column in Trafalgar Square, but that the Government did not consider
it advisable to put in a claim for it during the present year.”? How it was that
Mr. Lough, to whom the lions were originally consigned, and who is living, I believe,
at the present time, did not receive a commission to proceed with them, was not
explained till Parliament met in 1859, when Lord John Manners stated that the
“Government had selected Sir Edwin Landseer because they considered him the most
competent to. undertake the task; that he was then engaged in modelling the animals,
which it was expected would be in their places at no distant day.”’

Towards the close of the year 1858 the public gradually became aware that the
work was placed in the hands of Landseer, and that the sum of £6,000 was to be the
sum paid to him. The statement was received with very general surprise, for no one
supposed that, however skilled he was in painting such animals, he would be able, or
even willing, to model them in the clay. Had it been intended to execute them in
stone or marble it is self-evident the work must have been performed by a sculptor;
but as they were to be of bronze, Landseer’s task was merely to get them modelled, -
after his own designs and under his superintendence, by men accustomed to such
labour. Granite was, if I am not mistaken, the material of which originally the
animals were to be sculptured; the change was made to meet the difficulty of Land-
seer’s position; for another reason, moreover, it was, perhaps, a judicious one, as
the bronze would better harmonise with the bas-reliefs.

Nothing more, definitely, was heard in the matter, though the public journals of
every kind were expressing impatience of the delay, till 1860, when it was stated that
the painter had completed drawings of a lion which, having died in the Zoological
Gardens, had been removed to Landseer’s stables to serve as a study. These drawings
it was also said were then in the studio of Baron Marochetti, the sculptor, who was
actively employed in modelling the lions from them. Marochetti subsequently admitted
that, though he had aided with advice, the work was entirely Landseer’s.

What was actually being done in the matter seemed yet a mystery. Judging from
what was said in the House of Commons, in 1861, it may be remarked that the progress
was a backward one; for Mr. Cowper, then Chief Commissioner of Works, stated, in
answer to a query put by Admiral Walcott, that “‘Sir Edwin Landseer was now very
accurately studying the habits of lions, and was to be seen in the Zoological Gardens
making himself thoroughly acquainted with their attitudes.”” Well might Lord Henry
Lennox say in the House that the public was ‘ bamboozled”’ in the whole affair; and
well, too, might one of the journals of the day remark,—‘‘ We had, in our innocence,
always thought the work had been entrusted to Sir Edwin, because he’ was so pro-
foundly versed in Zonology; but it appears that after studying, as may be presumed, the
science for four years he does not yet feel himself in a position to undertake the task.”’
72 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A

 

And so year after year rolled on till 1867, the public all the while left in the dark
about the lions, the cry being still ‘they come,’’ when inquiries were made of those
who were supposed to know everything concerning them. At length they actually did
come; in the spring of that year they were all in their assigned places; and then it was
seen and acknowledged that something, at least, had been gained by the long waiting.
The animals, perhaps, are not what they might have been; but they are grand in
design, finely modelled, and the heads are wonderfully expressive of menace; as
also are the attitudes of these monsters, which are not unsuggestive of some gigantic
sculptures of Egypt. Little or no attention seems to have been paid to details; there
is the form of the animal in its grandeur of pose and in combined outline and volume,
but scarcely any indication of its natural covering.

Such is a brief history of the Nelson Column, which from its very commencement
proved a most unfortunate affair, and in its completed state is far from being such a
memorial of the hero it commemorates as England can point out to the foreigner with
the least feeling of pride. To have a column there at all, to dwarf still more the
National Gallery, already low enough, was a grand mistake. Nelson surmounting it is
simply an absurdity; the size of the lions and the massiveness of the granite pedestals
on which they rest, serve only to attenuate the shaft that rises from the centre. Land-
seer’s ‘‘ monarchs of the desert ’’ are noble objects to look upon in themselves, but they
are too large to compose with the column, and even if they were surrounded with forms
which would give them assistance and support, everything retires from them diminished
and broken; ‘‘and in their presence the treasure they are there forgathered to defend
looks mean and worthless.”’ .

 
 

THE END.

 

“Coming events cast their shadows before.”

  
    
   

=, HE motto adopted for this concluding chapter is, as is well known
Ae) to all acquainted with Landseer’s works, the title he appended to one
of his most famous pictures; and it can scarcely be considered inappro-
priate to what remains to be said of him. During the last two or three
years of his life, few who mixed much with artists and others associated
with art-matters, were not cognisant of the fact, that both mentally and physically
the great painter’s condition was most sad and afflictive, causing the greatest anxiety
to his relations and friends. For a very long time prior to his final illness, he was
often subjected to fits of great mental depression. “ It was very striking,’ says the
writer of an excellent notice of the painter, which appeared in the Dazly Mews a day
or two after his death, “‘to hear his moralisings on life as he felt the weight of years
telling on his faculties. ‘We use our lives unwisely,’ he said, ‘ and very differently
For the first five-and-twenty years we are

from what we suppose when we set out.
and in, some woman, who

learning life, and entering upon it; for the next we live for,
engrosses us wholly. It is only when we are past fifty that we see things as they are,
and really begin to live a rational and self-possessed

and have command over them,
He expected to become entirely

life’ But his case was a hard one to manage.
deaf at forty, like the majority of his ancestors and his immediate family. He did

not become deaf; but he took out his share in other ways. He underwent long

periods of extreme nervous depression, each proximately caused by some mental

shock. In one instance it was the murder of Lord William Russell. In other cases

it was other deaths of intimate friends; and each time it appeared as if he could never
U
74 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

rally; and he never did entirely recover ground thus lost.” These were the
“events” that ‘“‘cast their shadow before,’’ and which culminated in the last and
long ‘attack that secluded him from the world, and foreboded the end.

‘The dark hours of his life’’—to quote again the writer just referred to—

“multiplied as he drew near its close. Nothing could rouse him from his depression.
Beset by a vision of his own funeral, he lay silent; and tolerating no interruption, his
vital forces sinking under his too easy and long indulgences in images of terror and
mystery. His life, apparently so full and exuberant, so rich and so cheerful, was at
times a burden of fear and gloom.’ It is melancholy to know so much of the inner-
workings of a mind that had given to the world what had been, and will be for
generations to come, the intense delight of millions; for. his thoughts, as embodied by
the art of the engraver, can never die, though, as imprinted on his canvases, they
may perish.

Profoundly ignorant of all this as was the public generally, and as ignorant, also,
of the cause which had so long kept him in retirement, it was not without some
surprise to the many, and deep regret to all, when the daily papers of the 2nd of
October announced his death on the preceding day, at the age of seventy-one. There
was a universal feeling that the light of a great genius had passed away for ever, and
of sorrow that the hand which once held a pencil speaking a language all could
understand was cold and lifeless, and that henceforth the walls of the Academy would
never again be hung with works which, for nearly half a century, had drawn all
eyes to them. It is not too much to say that Sir Edwin Landseer was the most
popular painter England ever had, or is likely to have. No greater evidence of this
could be adduced than the mingled chorus of grief and laudation which broke forth
from the public press on all sides when the intelligence of his death was known.

On the 11th of October the body of the dead painter was carried, with appropriate
solemnity, but denuded of all funereal pomp and ceremony, from the house he had
occupied at St. John’s Wood for nearly fifty years, to St. Paul’s Cathedral, and was there
deposited in a crypt in the south-east angle of the church, which may lay claim to the
title of the ‘‘ artists’ corner,”’ for in that spot lie the “‘ mortal remains” of a few whose
names are legibly written in the foremost annals of British art. Forty-five members
and Associates of the Academy, out of a total of sixty-three, were present to pay the
last tribute to him who had so long been one of them; while men, eminent in station,
in literature, &c., formed a portion of the multitude that had gathered within the pre-
cincts of the Cathedral on this mournful occasion. Nor was the public feeling outside
of the sacred edifice less demonstrative; for the principal streets through which the
unpretentious procession passed were crowded with spectators, in the vast majority of
whom it was not difficult to note a feeling of deep sympathy with the melancholy occa-
sion which had caused them to assemble together. The Queen and the Prince of
THE END 75

Wales were both represented; and among the wreaths placed on the coffin, ere it was
lowered into the vault, was one from the former inscribed by Her Majesty’s own hand.
And so Sir Edwin Landseer passed to his final resting-place.

This volume is a tribute, unworthy as it may prove, to his art; and therefore
of himself personally but little is recorded here. It has been said that there is
scarcely one of his principal pictures which has not some incident or story connected
with it, and that suggested the work: these may probably be narrated by some
future biographer. There is no doubt, when one considers the society wherein the
artist was accustomed to move for many years past,—no painter, of our own time at
least, was so much flattered and noticed by rank, fashion, and wealth, the peculiar
associations arising out of his art, and his social and amiable disposition,—that a book
of most interesting and entertaining anecdote might be put together. But the admira-
tion he extorted as an artist never spoiled the man: ‘he drew to him,”’ wrote the
Times, ‘‘all who came within the range of his influence, man and animal alike, by a
personal charm of the strongest and most prevailing kind. A. more lovable, likable
man has seldom gathered so closely to him so wide a circle of friends and acquaint-
ance. Though fashion took tithe of his genius, and required sacrifices of time and
talents which might have been devoted to higher and better work, he remained
unworldly as he was amiable.’”” The distinctive attention paid to him had, however,
its drawback; for it rendered him, though entirely free from vanity, painfully sen-
sitive to anything which seemed like neglect, and to unfavourable criticism of his
works: unkindness and the absence of cordiality, where one or both opposites might
be reasonably expected of friends, were the skeletons in his home.

Landseer was never married: his two sisters, both of whom followed him to the
grave, resided with him till one of them married Mr. Mackenzie; the other remained
at the house in St. John’s Wood to superintend her brother’s household.

Of the character of his works generally, little need be said; they speak for
themselves: but one thing may be stated almost with certainty, and it is this; that
if engravings from two or three of his pictures, which directly point out the noble
qualities of the domestic animals, were hung in every dwelling of man throughout the
kingdom, there would be but little need of such a society as that for the ‘‘ Suppression
of Cruelty to Animals,” so powerful is the appeal they make to the best feelings of
human nature. Landseer has elevated the art of animal-painting by elevating the
creature delineated on his canvas. It has been said that he “‘ paints the dog as if he
was its father; paints it chidingly, correctingly, upbraidingly, sympathisingly, and
playfully.”’ He must have studied its mental characteristics—and let no one say dogs
have not minds; that is, something more than mere natural instincts—just as closely
as he studied the anatomy of their frame and the texture of their skin. He is the poet-
76 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

painter of the dog, quite as much as Turner is the poet-painter of the glorious scenery
of nature; yet whereas the latter may not unfrequently be regarded as an idealist, the
former is ever the exponent of truth in the abstract, though sometimes expressed in a
manner contrary to the usual habits of the animal; as, for example, in such a work as
‘* Alexander and Diogenes.”’

Then, if we accompany him to the Scottish Highlands, and follow him as our guide
over heathery moorland, and through the glen of the forest where the red-deer makes
its home, he shows us the antlered monarch in mist and sunshine, joy and sorrow,
triumphant and defeated, browsing on the mountain, or struggling for life in the deep
waters of the loch. As he studied the dog in the kennel-yard, or waiting the approach
of his master, or battling with some strong opponent, or sleeping on a couch of velvet,
so he must have watched the deer from behind blocks of granite, or trunks of stately
trees, or from clumps of graceful ferns, to make himself acquainted with their “ cus-
toms, manners, and habits;’? and cvten, it may be presumed, to stretch the beautiful
animal low on the greensward with his deadly rifle. It is a noticeable feature in
Landseer’s pictures, whether of dogs or deer, that we rarely see them in action ; almost
invariably they are in repose.

And to pass from the matter of Landseer’s art to its manner, how wonderful is its
imitation of the reality ; and yet there is rarely any sign of elaboration. The most minute
details seem to be only the result of rapid, yet most decided, sweeps of the pencil,
handled with a perfect knowledge of what they will effect, whether it be the gloss on
the skin of a well-groomed horse or the curve of a bird’s feather. A writer said of
him many years ago :—‘“‘ Veronese is marvellous with the twilled linen of his bishops
and priests, Titians in his flesh, Teniers in his brass stew-pans, Vandyke in his silks
and velvets; but no one can represent the hair of animals better than Landseer. He
knows the exact flexibility and strength of deer’s hair, of otter’s fur, of swan’s down,
or a terrier’s stiff curls; of a horse’s coat, of a bird’s plumage.’’ It may also be
remarked that the landscape portions of his compositions are painted with as much
feeling for the picturesque, and show as close observation of nature, as do the various
objects which give to them spirit and life.

It may be a question to what extent time may affect the colour of his works.
Some, and especially a few of his latest period, are painted in a low key, and these
will probably become lower: moreover, his colouring is often thin, and, therefore, it is
only reasonable to infer that it cannot be very durable. The compiler of the catalogue
of the pictures in the South Kensington Museum makes the following remarks, having
reference to this point :—‘‘ The pictures of Landseer and Leslie are very interesting in
connection with the question of the preservation of British works of art, since we can
compare the present state of these painters’ works with the vehicle which has been
used in painting them. Generally, the pictures of both these artists are perfectly
THE END. 7

 

sound and unchanged; and as Leslie is known to have painted with mastic magilp,
and Landseer is believed to have done so likewise, it would show that this medium,
when not used in improper quantities, is as safe and trustworthy as can be desired. -
Some of these pictures have been long varnished, but do not show any signs of those
opening cracks which are sure to be seen when asphaltum is used, but which do not
seem necessarily to result from the use of magilp. Two or three places in the
‘Drovers’ Departure for the South’ have been touched with asphaltum, laid on
probably in the ‘ varnishing days’ to enrich the darks; these small spots will be seen
to have entirely failed, while the rest of the surface is firm, bright, and wholly
unchanged. Other pictures by Landseer have partially failed, as is the case with the
‘Suspense,’ and also with Leslie’s ‘ Uncle Toby and the Widow,’ in which asphaltum
has been used; but, ‘as a rule, the works of these two artists stand well.’’

Tt is early days to talk of pictures painted, even within the last forty or fifty years,
“standing well.’ Such a verdict can only te pronounced upon them three or
four centuries hence—a testimony one is able to give in favour of no inconsiderable
number of the works in the National Gallery by the old masters, which, when cleansed
of the accumulated dirt of generations, reveal themselves in almost all the purit and
brilliancy of colour they exhibited, it may be presumed, when fresh from the studio of
the artists. But those men painted for eternity, and paid as much attention to the
chemistry of their palettes as to the subjects depicted on their canvases. Judging by
what I have seen of not a few modern pictures within an interval of twenty or thirty
years between their appearance in the Academy, or elsewhere, and a second examina-
tion, it is to be feared that any expectation of durability would be futile, as a rule.
The demands made on Landseer’s time, especially during the latter half, or more, of
his life, were too great, and he was too desirous of meeting them, to justify the hope
that they will long withstand the deteriorating influences of very many years.

If the popularity of an artist be estimated by the demand for his works—zn any form
—then it may fairly be asserted that no painter at any period in the history of att has
enjoyed such universal: favour, not alone in our own epuiigy, Put among foreigners,
during his lifetime, as did Landseer. The purchase of his paintings was attainable only
by the comparatively few, whose resources were ample, though me artist ave received
exorbitant prices for them, but the art of the engraver has circulated his pictures
over the civilised world. Messrs. Henry Graves and Co. seem to have had almost a
monopoly of the privilege of publishing his works, and an exhibition of their prints, to
the number of more than three hundred, recently opened at their rooms in Pall Mall,
testifies to the favour in which Landseer is held by the public; and no less to the
enterprise of Messrs. Graves: it is certainly a wonderful collection. One engraving is

-shown for the copyright of which they paid the artist 5 guineas ; the picture, ‘‘ Wamba
and his Dogs,’’ was painted long years ago, as an illustration to the Waverley Novels:
x
98 SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

 

another is also exhibited, ‘A Dialogue at Waterloo,’’ which cost them £3,000 to
secure the copyright of the picture. It may not unreasonably be inferred that
% 100,000 have been expended, in various ways, upon the production of these engrav-
ings. Such an amount devoted by one firm to the works of one artist is, probably,
without a parallel. But there are other publishers who have also sent forth engravings
after this painter. As complete a list of these engravings as Messrs. Graves could
procure will be found in the Appendix to this volume.

Landseer, it is reported, has left a very large property; so large, if the information
which has reached me from good authority be correct, as will astonish the public if the
statement be verified. Whatever it may prove to be, however, there can be no doubt
that his wealth arose less from what he was paid for his pictures than from the specu-
lative enterprise of print-publishers, who, as a rule, considered no sum too large to
obtain the privilege of engraving a popular subject. And it is by the wide circulation
of these works that the fame of the painter has extended over the world; and it must
be by them, chiefly, that the knowledge of his genius will be transmitted to all future
generations.

His ‘‘life’s fitful fever” has passed away, but the results of that life remain with
us in scenes of joyousness or of sadness; for we laugh at his “ Monkey who had seen
the World” and his “ Uncle Tom and his Wife,’ as we sigh over his “ Shepherd’s
Chief Mourner’’ and ‘‘ The Random Shot.”” The great lesson he taught mankind in
the majority of his works is a noble one; and it has had, as it should have, power to
inculcate kindness to the dumb animals, which have lost in him a warm and sympathetic
friend, and the skilful interpreter of their instincts and character; reading them by the
light of his own generous affection and close study of their habits and natures. In
this way Landseer has opened up a path in which alone other animal-painters can hope
to succeed at all, though they are not likely to attain the high point he reached.

 
 

APPENDIX

—t+oo—

PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

1815.
443. Portrait of a Mule, the property of W. H.
Simpson, Esq., of Beleigh Grange, Essex.
584. Heads of a Pointer Bitch and Puppy, the pro-
perty of W. H. Simpson, Esq., of Beleigh
Grange, Essex,

1817.
343. Portrait of Brutus, the property of W. W. Simp-
son, Esq.
1818,

43. Portrait of an Old Horse.
44. Portrait of a Donkey.

1819.
26. Merino Sheep and Dog.
930. A Dog of the Marlborough Breed, the property
of Mr. Plumer of Gilston Park.

1820.
377. The Thistle and the Ass Laden with Provisions,
from “ Zsop’s Fables.”
406. Pointers.
1821.

120, Ratcatcher.
419. Impertinent Puppies dismissed by a Monkey.

 

1822.

29. A Prowling Lion.
112. Ratcatchers.
161. A Highland Terrier.
252. Devonshire Cows.

1823,
289. Portrait of Hunters.
525. Portrait of a favourite Spaniel, the property of
5. Streatfield, Esq.

1824.

341. Portrait of Brunette, a favourite Horse, the
property of Lord Henniker.
370. Neptune, the property of W. Ellis Gosling, Esq.

1825.
42. Portrait of Lord Cosmo Russell, son of his
Grace the Duke of Bedford.
190. Taking a Buck,
211, The Widow.
1826.

292. The Hunting of Chevy Chase.
1827.

25. Highlanders returning from Deer-stalking with
Dead Deer, &c,

Note.—lhe numbers indicate those which are registered in the catalogues of the Academy. Some apparent discrepancies a
probably be noticed in the titles given in this and the subsequent list, and those by which the same pictures are referred oo in
the foregoing text. This is attributable to the names having been sometimes altered when the works were engraved, The repetition
of the same title in the two lists shows that the same picture was exhibited both at the Academy and at the British Institution, or

that different works bore similar titles.
 

80 PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.
128, The Monkey who had seen the World. : 141. Collie Dog rescuing a Sheep from a Snowdrift.
I 36. Portrait of the Hon. James Murray, second son | 332. Mark Hall, the property of W. Wigram, Esq.
to Lord Glenlyon, with a gamekeeper and a
favourite fawn. 1835.
230. Dead Game, Swan, and Peacock, &c. 130. Fairy, the property of Mrs. E. Lytton Bulwer.
167.. A Scene in the Grampians—the Drovers’ De-
1828. parture. :
352. Scene in the Highlands, with portraits of the | 303- Favourites, the property of H.R.H. Prince
Duchess of Bedford, the Duke of ‘Gordon, George of Cambridge.
and Lord Alexander Russell. 1836.
ae esr ae oe. SSryeanrine arr 14. Scene in Chillingham Park; Portrait of Lord
Ossulton, &c.
1829. 118, Twelfth Night ; or What you Will.
20. An Illicit Whisky-Still in the Highlands. 143. Ladies Harriet and Beatrice Hamilton, Children
96. Portrait of the Hon. Richard Cavendish, with a of the Marquis and Marchiostss of Abereors
favourite greyhound, &c., the property of his | 339- Mustard, the son of Pepper i Shven by the date
Grace the Dake of Devondhizs: Sir Walter Scott to Sir Francis Chantrey.
225. A Dead Roe Deer. 1837.
291. Bashaw, the property of the Rt. Hon. the Earl 28. Falcon.
of Dudley. 34. Hooded Falcon.
z12. The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner.
meee: 160. The Highlands.
313. Portraits of His Grace the Duke of Atholl and | 536 Return from Hawking.
Mr. George Murray, attended by his Head | 353, Spaniels, the property of the Earl of Albemarle.
Forester, John Crerar, Keepers, &c. 325. Friends.
342. Attachment. 445. Spaniels, the property of Lady Scott Douglas.
1831. 1838.
86. Interior of a Highlander’s House. ax. “There’s Life in the Old Dog Yet.”
146. oe ee 49. Portraits of the Marquis of Stafford and the
taj. Little Red Riding Hood. Lady Evelyn Gower—Dunrobin Castle in the
295. The Poacher’s Bothy. deeanie
geie Heneher god Ned Tees, go. Portraits of Her Majesty’s favourite Dogs and
1832. = Parrot.
106. Pets. 147. Portrait of the Lady Fitzharris.
132. Portrait of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, | 359. “None but the Brave deserve the Fair.”
K.G., &c., &e. 462. Distinguished Member of the Humane Society.
346. Hawking.
1839.
1833. 69. Princess Mary of Cambridge and a favourite
170. A Jack in Office. Newfoundland Dog, the property of Prince
268. Deer and Deerhounds in a Mountain-Torrent. George of Cambridge.
318. Hunters, the property of W. Wigram, Esq. 145. Tethered Rams—Scene in Scotland.
311. Sir Walter Scott, seated at the bottom of the | 222. Corsican, Russian, and Fallow Deer.
Rhymer’s Glen. 235. Portrait of Miss Eliza Peel, with Fido.
289. Favourite Pony and Dogs, the property of
1834. Charles William Packe, Esq., M.P., &c., &c.
13. Scene of the Olden Time at Bolton Abbey. 351. Van Amburgh and his Animals,
96. A Highland Breakfast.

 

548. Children of the Hon. Col. Seymour Bathurst.
PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

81

 

139.

149.

3rT.

96.
98.
141.
145.
255.
266.

431.

100.
314.

13.

102.
272.

332.

141.

53-
165.
2yI.

1840.

. Horses taken in to Bait, the property of J.

Marshall, Esq.

Macaw, Love-birds, Terrier, and Spaniel pup-
pies, belonging to Her Majesty.

Lion-dog (from Malta, the last of the tribe), the
property of H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent.

Laying Down the Law.

1841.
Absent.

1842.

Otters and Salmon.

The Highland Shepherd’s Home.

Ziva, a Badger-dog, belonging to the hereditary
Prince of Saxe-Cobourg Gotha.

A Pair of Brazilian Monkeys, the property of
Her Majesty.

Breeze, a favourite Retriever, the property of
the Accountant-General.

Eos, a favourite Greyhound, the property of
H.R.H. Prince Albert

The Sanctuary.

1843.
Portrait of the Hon. Ashley Ponsonby.
Horses, the property of William Wigram, Esq.

1844.
The Otter Speared ; portraits of the Earl of
Aberdeen’s Otter-hounds.

Disappointment.
“Coming Events cast their Shadows before

them.”
Shoeing.

1845.
This picture had no title in the Catalogue ; it is
now known as “ The Shepherd’s Prayer.”

1846,
Time of Peace.
Time of War.
Stag at Bay.
Refreshment.

 

71.

186,

48.
85.
208,
2209.

403.

13.
108.
196.
356.
512.

112,
134.
157.
355:
369.
588.

46.
69.
170.
2gi.

1847
The Drive—Shooting Deer on the Pass; Scene
in the Black Mount, Glen-Urchy Forest.
Portrait of Mr. Van Amburgh, as he appeared
with his Animals at the London Theatres.
Painted for Fiedd-Marshal the Duke of
Wellington.

1848.

Pincher, the property of Montague Gore, Esq.

Sketch of my Father.

Alexander and Diogenes.

An Old Cover Hack, the property of R.
~ Heathcote, Esq.

A Random Shot.

1849.
The Desert.
The Forester’s Family.
The Free Church.
Collie Dogs.
Evening Scene in the Highlands.

1850.

. A Dialogue at Waterloo.
281.

| Baa.

“ What man of you, having an hundred sheep ?”
Good Doggie. The property of Lady Murchison.

1851,

The Monarch of the Glen.
Group—Geneva.

Scene from the Afidsummer Night's Dream,
Highlander.

Lassie.

The Last Run of the Season.

1852.
Absent.

1853.
Night.
Morning.
Children of the Mist.
Twins.
82

PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE ROVAL ACADEMY.

 

1854.

63. Royal Sports on Hill and Loch: the Queen, the
Prince Consort, and the Prince of Wales ; the
Viscountess Jocelyn.

Dandie Dinmont, the favourite old Skye Terrier
of Her Majesty the Queen.

360.

1855.
Absent.
1856.

Saved! Dedicated to the Humane Society.
Highland Nurses. Dedicated to Miss Nightingale.

I47.
208,

1857.
Scene in Brae Mar—Highland Deer, &c.
Rough and Ready.
Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale.

77:
93-
345;

1858.

The Maid and the Magpie.
Deer-stalking.

180.
800.

1859.

Doubtful Crumbs.

“ Bran will never put another stag to bay; and
Oscar will no make out by himself, The deer
will do fine yet!”

The Prize-Calf.

“ A kind Star.”

138.
175.

203.
426.

1860,

106. Flood in the Highlands,

1861,
135. The Shrew tamed.
757. Fatal Duel.
7 cia aaa in the Marquis of Breadalbane’s High: |

759-4 land Deer-Forest.
1862.
Absent.
1863.
Absent.
1864
82. Piper and Pair of Nutcrackers.
134. Windsor Park.
163. “Man proposes, God disposes.”
371. Pensioners.

| 255.

 

1865.°
gi. Déjediner 4 la Fourchette,
102, Prosperity.
112. Adversity.
152. The Connoisseurs.

1866.
92. Mare and Foal—Indian Tent, &c.
10g. Lady Godiva's Prayer.
213. Odds and Ends—Trophy for a Hall.
694. The Chase.
942, Stag at Bay.
1867,
72, Her Majesty at Osborne in 1866.
124. Deer of Chillingham Park, Northumberland.
144. Wild Deer of Chillingham. The property of
the Earl of Tankerviile.
1868.
123. Rent-day in the Wilderness.
347. “Weel, sir, if the deer got the ball,” &c.
1869.
30. Study of a Lion.
32. Study of a Lion,
120, The Swannery invaded by Sea-eagles.
224. The Ptarmigan Hill,
1870.
105. Voltigeur; winner of the Derby and St. Leger,
1850. The property of the Earl of Zetland.
152. Queen Victoria meeting the Prince Consort on

his return from Deer-stalking in the year
1850.

265. Doctor's Visit to Poor Relations at the Zoolo-
gical Gardens.

333. Deer.

1019. Lassie—a Sketch.

1871.
Absent.

1872.
23. The Lady Emily Peel, with her favourite Dogs.
190. The Baptismal Font.
409. The Lion and the Lamb.

1873.
“ Tracker.”

256. Sketch of Her Majesty the Queen (unfinished),
Ller Majesty has not sat for the Likeness.
PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.

83

 

PICTURES

66.
145.

105.
ToS,
188.
218.

211.

277.

67.
78.
164,
220.
248.

94-
122,
284.

66.

147.
161.
282,

174.

185.
202.

1818,
Alpine Mastiff.
Study of a Dog.

1819.

The Cat Disturbed.

The Wanton Puppy.

Newfoundland Dog and Rabbit.

Fighting Dogs getting Wind.

The Three Dogs of 1820, England, Scotland,
and Ireland, from a poem written by Thomas
Bridgman; Esq., in imitation of Burn’s “ Twa
Dogs.”

Alpine Mastiffs re-animating a Distressed Tra-
veller.

1821.
Pointers, So ho!
A Lion disturbed at his Repast.
The Rival Candidates.
Seizure of a Boar.
The Lion Enjoying his Repast.

1822.
The Larder Invaded.
The Watchful Sentinel.
The Harper.

1823.
Death of the Woodcock.
Greyhounds Resting.
Boy and Donkey.
The Eager Terrier.

1824.

A Frame containing, “Itinerant Performers,”
and the “ Angler’s Guard.”

The Cat’s Paw ; from “ La Fontaine’s Fables.”

Puppy and Frog.

 

100.

113.
182,
184.
203.
269.
338.

36.
313.
320.

195.
206,

10.
68,
231.
256.

53-
60.

247.

2.
25.
248.
283.
289.

EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.

1825.
The Poacher.

1826,

Interior of a Highland Cottage.
The Dog and Shadow.
Deerhound and Dead Hare.
The Widow.

Taking a Buck.

Dead Deer and Highlander.

1827.
The Hunting in Chevy Chase.

A scene in Abbotsford,
Dead Deer and Deerhound

1828.

Deer Fallen from a Precipice.
Scene in the Highlands—Bogwood Gatherers.

1829. ‘
Highlanders Returning from Deerstalking.
Conversazione.
Deer just Shot.
The Poor Dog.

1830.

The Stone-Breaker.
Highland Music.
Ptarmigan and Roebuck.

1831.

Too Hot.

Cottage Industry.

‘Low Life, and High Life.
The Highland Cradle.
Highland Game.
 

 

84 PICTURES EXHIBITED AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION.
1832. 378. Red Deer.
j 387- Hare and Stoat.
23. Hawking.
75. Interior of a Highlander’s House. ifaw:
174. The Auld Guid Wife.
186. Lassies Herding Sheep. 119. Dogs. : ‘
326. The Challenge. 285. The Dairy-Maid.
1833. 1840.
ie. “the Raniee: 1. Young Roebuck and Rough Hounds.
26. A Sketch.
59. Highland Game. 1842.
129. Ptarmigans. 120. “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like
130. Pheasant. home.”
137. Hawking.
148. Black Grouse. 1843.
149. Black Cock and Grey Hen, 1. Not so Easily Caught.
1834. 1845.
4. A Naughty Child. 1. Decoy-man’s Dog and Ducks.
144. Suspense. 134. King Charles Spaniels.
156. Deer and Deerhounds in a Mountain-Torrent. 190. Sussex Spaniel.
276. The Eagle’s Nest. 199. Retriever.
1835. 1858,
: 4. Extract from my Journal whilst at Abbotsford.
73. The Sleeping Bloodhound. 28. The Twa Dogs. ;
165. The Retr.ever.
1861
1836 67. An Offering.
40, Comical Dogs.
30. Highland Harvest Girl. 1864.
140. Odin. 68. Well-bred Sitters, that never say they are
: “bored.”
1838
361. The Pointer. 1865.
366. Fallow Deer. 85. “Dear Old Boz,” painted for Her Majesty,
371. Roebucks. 189. No Hunting ’till the Weather Breaks,
372. The Two Dogs. 204. An Event in the Forest.

 
 

LIST OF THE

ENGRAVED WORKS OF SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

Subject.
Abbotsford, Scene at ;
Abercorn Children : ;

Abercorn, Duchess and Children .

Albert (Prince) and Baby
Ditto at Balmoral .

Alexander and Diogenes

Alice, Princess 5 : ;

Alpine Mastiff (first treatment)

Alpine Mastiff (second treatment)

Alpine Mastiffs

Beatrice, Princess .

Beauty’s Bath

Bedford, Countess of

Be it ever so Humble

Bell, Jacob, Esq.

Best Run of the Season

Blessington, Countess of

Bob :

Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time .

Brae-Mar
Braggart, The
Breakfast Party
Breeze (Retriever)
British Hog
Browsing

Ditto (Goat)
Brunette (Horse)

 

Engraver.
C. Westwood.
Samuel Cousins, R.A.
¥. Thomson.
Francts Holl.
W. H. Simmons.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
adutto.
aztto.
aztto.
Fohn Landseer, A.R.A.
W. H Simmons.
Samuel Cousins, R.A.
Charles Heath.
B. P. Gibbon.
Thomas Landseer, A.RoAs
attto.
F.C. Lewts.
Fohn Outrim.
Samuel Cousins, R.A.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Richard Parr.
E. Finden.
C. G. Lewts.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
Charles Lewts.
Lowes Dickinson.
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

 

Subject.

Brutus (looking at a door)
Brutus, Old
Bull Dog
Catherine Seyton .
Cat’s Paw
Challenge

Ditto

Ditto

Ditto
Chesterfield, Bounds ak
Chevy .
Chevy Chase .
Chieftain’s Friends
Children of the Mist
Children with Rabbits .
Coming Events ;
Connoisseurs (Portrait of Sir E. Handseoy
Cottage Industry
Cover Hack ‘
Crossing the Bridge
Crossing the Ice
Dairy Maid é
Dash, Hector, Nero, sie a Borg
Dead for a Ducat
Dead Red Deer, ‘
Death of the Stag in Glen Tilt ‘
Death of the Wild Bull, Chillingham Park .
Deer
Deer and Founded ina Teiient (Death af tiie Stay)
Deer Family .
Deer Pass
Defeat of Comus

Ditto
Dialogue at Waterloo
Dignity and Impudence
Ditto

Distinguished Member of de Pitas Sudiew
Dog and Cat (the Intruder)
Dog and Fox, Cross of a
Dog and Hare
Dog and two Dead Rinks
Dogs setting a Hare
D’Orsay (Count), and Lady Btesdington
Doubtful Crumbs : : :
Drive of Deer ‘
Egerton, Miss Blanche .
Eos . .

Engraver.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
ditto.
W H. Simmons.
C. G. Lewes.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
HI, F. Walker and F. Burnet.
C. Mottram.
C.F. Lewis.
HI, Robinson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewts.
F.C. Armytage.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
dzttto.
HT. T. Ryati.
Samuel Couszis, R.A.
F.C. Lewis.
C. G. Lewts.
5. LT. Wellmore, ARA.
R. Graves, A.R.A.
HI. T. Ryall.
F. Bacon.
R. F. Lane, ARA.
F. R. Scott.
Fohn Bromley.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewts.
F. Cousen.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
adttto.
ditto.
F. C. Armytage.
TZ. L. Atkinson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
G. Zobel.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
HT. S. Beckwith.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewzs.
Fane Worship.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Str £. Landseer, R.A.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
ff, Robinson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS

87

 

Subject.
‘Ss—
eturn from Deer Stalking
ame Card .
Ditto
andscape .
he Sweep .
he Frog
ow Life ;
he Traveller’s Rest .
he Mountain Torrent
he Watchman
he Four Dogs
he Donkeys, &c.
‘he Ladies’ Pets .
‘he Beggar .
‘he Warren
‘he Eagle
thepherd’s Dog .
1 the Forest
lorse) .
Jog) .
The Peregrine .
r ‘ 3
ir, The Young
> Party
ris, Hon. Lady
n the Highlands .
he ‘ . .
t WoRK—
Wait till he rise .
Yo Hope
Waiting for a Load
Well Packed
At Bay :
The Venison House
The Grealoch
A Grand Hart
Precious Trophies
A Goodly Freight
The Fatal Duel
The Watch Tower
Blood . . .
The Pass. : .
Best Harts in the Forest
Suspicion
Off .
Doomed

Engraver.

Str E. Landseer, R.A.
aitto.
ditto.
autto
atte.
aitto.
adttto.
aztto.
adttto.
aitto.
aitto.
ditto.
attto.
attto.
adztto.
attto.
autto.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Lowes Dickenson.
Alfred Lucas.
C. G. Lewis. .
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Y. C. Armytage.
B. P. Gibbon.
Hi. Robinson.
T. L. Atkinson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

attto.
attto.
autto.
adttto.
attto.
C. G. Lewis.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

C. G. Lewts.
Fohn Outrim.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

attto.
C. G. Lewts.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

dttto.
dttto.
C. G. Lewis.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

ditto
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

 

Subject.

FOREST WORK (continued) :—

Found

Missed
Forester’s Family .

Ditto.
Foxes
Free Kirk
Free Trade
French Hog .
Fresco at Gwydyr Houke
Geneva . , ee
Getting a Shot
Glen Fishie
Glory of William Smith
Good Doggie .
Hafed
Harvest in the Hishiands
Hawk
Hawk Trainer
Hawking in the Olden Time .
Heads of Deer j
Heads of Deer Hounds .

‘Head of a Greyhound

Head of a Persian Cat
Head of a Pointer Bitch, and Whelp
Head of a Ram ;
High Life
Ditto
Highland Himes
Highland Bothie
Highland Cradle
Highland Drovers’ Departure
Highland Interior . :
Highland Lassie Crossing the on .
Highland Nurses
"+ Ditto
Highland Piper ‘
Highland Shepherd’s Hom .
Highland Whisky-Still
Ditto
Highlander’s Return from Deer Stailidng
Horses and Magpie ‘
Horses at the Fountain .
Hours of Innocence ‘ :
How to get the Deer Home .
Hunted Stag .
Ditto

Engraver.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

Fohn Outrim.

T. L. Atkinson.

G. Zobel.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

T. L. Atkinson.

F. West Giles.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

Landells.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

Y. H. Robinson, R.A.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

Fohn Pye.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

C. G. Lewts.

F. LT. Wellmore, A.RA,

C. G. Lewts.

Yohn Burnet, ¥.R.S.

C. G. Lewts:

Thomas Landseer, A.R A.

C. W. Wass.

AZ, B. Hall.

Thomas Landscer, A.R.A.
attto.
ditto.

R. F. Lane, ARA.

Hf, S. Beckwith.

Fohn Outrim.

Charles Fox.

Robert Graves, AR.A.

J. H. Watt

W. Finden.

Sohn Outrim.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

G. Zobel.

A. S. Beckwith.

B. P. Gibbon.

Robert Graves, A.R.A.

F. Stephenson.

fH. T. Ryall,

Woocut.

¥. H. Watt.

Fo dhe , Wright.

Zi homas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.

G. Zobel.
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

 

Subject.
and Hounds
3 at Grass
ian and Hounds.
ig Puppies. ‘
‘acaw and Love Birds
Office .
:to

harles’ Spaniels (Cavalier’s Pets)
f the Forest.

nd Spaniels

Invaded

rene, The

Herding Sheep

‘Down the Law .

.Dog . ‘

‘og of Malta

Nero

Den

3randmama .

red Riding Hood .
saggan, Queen Sketching at
heep : ;

ife

es ; :

nd the Magpie

‘sbury, Countess of

la, The. ,

'roposes, God Disposes

yzettes . . .

numer Night’s Dream

ef in Full Play

ch of the Glen

Ditto

ag

0 ‘ ‘
rs (set of eight)

ain Top

ain Torrent .

ife : .

20n’s Eagle .

ty Boy.

ne. < 2 . ‘
a Lion from Senechal) .

os cs «2s = * &
yut the Brave (large subject)

Engraver.
Lhomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewis.
Al, T, Ryall.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewts.
B. P. Grbbon
C. G. Lewis.
W. TZ. Davey.
Fohn Outrim.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A..
ditto.
attto.
aditto.
Fohn Burnet, F.RS.

_ Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

CG, Lents:

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
attto.

Sohn Landseer, A.R.A.

C. Rolls.

Y. H. Robinson, R.A.

. FT. Willmore, A.RA.

Thomas Landseer, A.RuA.

R. F. Lane, A.RA

Hi. S. Beckwith.

Samuel Cousins, A.R.A.

R. F. Lane, A.RA.

F. H. Robinson, R.A.,

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.

Samuel Cousins, R.A.

W. Raddon.

Thomas Landseer, A.K.A.

G. Zobel.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

G. Zobel.

C. G. Lewis.

Yohn Outrim.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

HT. Ryall

attto.

W. Finden.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
ditto

G. Zobel.

Thomas Landseer, A.RA.
go

LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

Subject.

None but the Brave (earlier composition)
Norton, Hon. Mrs.
Not Caught yet
Odin ‘ ‘
Off to the Rescue .
Old English Bloodhound
Osborne, Her Majesty at
Otter Hunt ‘
Otter and Salmon .
Packe’s Pony
Paganini
Pen, Brush, and Chisel .
Pensioner
Pets
Pheasant Shoothe with Satine
Piper and Pair of Nutcrackers

Ditto
Poacher .
Poacher .
Pointer .
Power, Miss . j
Prince George’s Favourites - .
Prize Calf
Proctor .
Protection . :
Protection—Hen and oe
Ptarmigan Hill
Puppy and Frog
Queen and Children
Queen in the Highlands
Queen’s Letter Paper
Queen’s Note Paper
Random Shot
Rat Catchers .
Reaper .
Red Deer of Guiiitimahveens
Refreshment . j
Rescue .
Retriever
Retriever and Woodeock
Return from Hawking .
Return from the Warren
Roebuck and Rough Hounds
Rogers’ Italy—St. Bernard Dogs .
Royal Arms . ‘
Russell, Lord Mian
Russell, Lord Cosmo

Engraver.

Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
F.C. Lewts.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
W. H. Simmons.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
W. R. Smith.
Yames Stephenson.
C. G. Lewts.
Y. R. Fackson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Soseph Nash.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
F. Stacpoole.
W. H. Wate.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Samuel Coustns, R.A.
G. Zobel.
C. G. Lewis.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A,

adutto.
AA. Robinson.
W, Giller.
T. L. Atkinson.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
F. West Gites.
C. G. Lewts.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. W. Wass.
Samuel Coustus, R.A.
W. H. Simmons.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

ditto.
C. G. Lewis.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
HI. T. Ryall.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Henry Cousins.
Charles Mottram.
C. G. Lewts.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Samuel Coustns, R.A.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A
B. P. Gibbon.
W. R. Smith.
J. W. Branston.
C. G. Lewds.

aztto
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

gr

 

Subject.
Russell, Lady Georgiana
Sanctuary :
Ditto
Ditto
Saved
Ditto
Scotch Game .
Sentinel .
Sharp
Sheep, Five
Shepherd’s Bible
Shepherd’s Chief Mourner
Shepherd’s Grave .
Shepherd’s Prayer .
Shoeing : :
Sleeping Bloodhound
Ditto : :
Slippered Pantaloon . 7
Southdown Rams .
Spaniel and Pheasant
Stag at Bay
Ditto
Ditto
Stag’s Horns .
Startled !
Stealing a March
Stonebreaker’s Daughter
Suspense
Ditto :
Sutherland Children
Taming the Shrew
Tapageur :
Terrier and Rat (Bob)
Tethered Ram ‘ : :
There’s Life in the Old Dog yet
Tiger, A ‘
Time of Peace
Ditto
Ditto
Time of War .
Ditto
Ditto
To-ho (Pointers)
Travelled Monkey .
Twa Dogs
* Ditto
Twelfth Night

Engraver.
ff, T. Ryall,
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C.F. Lewis.
G. Zobel.
Samuel Coustns, R.A.
G. Zobel.
F. F. Chant.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
frederick Prercy.
Thomas Landscer, A.R.A.
attto.
B. P. Gibbon.
ditto.
TZ. L. Atkinson.
C. G. Lewts.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
C. G. Lewts.
S. Williams.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
aitto.
G. Zobel.
C. Mottram.
Charles Haghe.
C. G. Lewzs.
Edward Burton.
Sohn Burnet, F.R.S.
B. P. Gibbon.
C. G. Lewts.
Samuel Cousins, R.A.
James Stephenson.
Robert Mitchell.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
Fohn Burnet, ¥F.R.S.
A. T. Ryall.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
T. L. Atkinson.
G. Zobel.
L. Stocks, R.A., and F. Cousen.
T. L. Atkinson.
G. Zobel.
L. Stocks, R.A.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
B. P. Gibbon.
ditto.
C. G. Lewzs.
Y. H. Robinson, R.A.
LIST OF ENGRAVED WORKS.

 

Subject.
Twins ‘ ‘ ; F ;
Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale .
Vanquished Lion
Vixen ; .
Waiting z a .
Waiting and Watching .
Waiting for the Deer to Rise
Waiting for the Countess
Watching the Body
WAVERLEY NOVELS—
Betrothed : .
Betrothed on the Ramparts
Bevis . ‘
Bride of Lammermoor
The Rescue (from Zhe Abbot)
Edie Ochiltre
Gurth and Wamba

White Lady of Avenal . ‘ as
False Herald “4
Widow . a ‘ ‘ ‘ - 3
Wild Cattle of Chillingham . ‘ : 7
Windsor Castle ‘ ‘ ;
Ditto é a : 5 ‘ ‘
Windsor Forest . : : ‘ 7
Woodcutter . ‘ . ‘ x é ,

Engraver.
Thomas Landseer, AR.A.
Charles Mottram.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
ditto.
F.C. Webb.
f. D. Harding.
ff. T, Ryall.
C. W. Wass.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.

R. Graves, A.R.A.
C. Rolls.

W. Raddon.

W. Finden.

W. H. Watt.

F. Mitchell.

W. Raddon.

£. Portbury.

R. Graves, A.R.A.
Fohn Burnet, F.R.S.
Thomas Landseer, A.R.A.
T. L. Atkinson.

F. R. Fackson.

IT OL. Atkinson:

C. G. Lewts.

PORTRAITS OF SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.

After Fohn Hayter
After Count D’ Orsay :
After Fohn Ballantine, RSA. .

C. G. Lewes,
Lithograph,
Lithograph.

 

 

VIRTUE AND CO., PRINTERS, CITY ROAD, LONDON,