CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
FI^fE ARTS LIBRARY
Cornell Unlvenlty Library
ND 497.L25M2S 1902
Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.,
3 1924 014 877 645 «■.
Cornell University
Library
The original of tliis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014877645
The Makers of British Art
Edited bv JAMES A. MANSON
Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
This Series, in superior leather bindings, may be had on
application to the Publishers,
TO
RICHARD TAYLOR,
A GREAT MASTER OF THE VANISHED ART
OF
WOOD-ENGRAVING,
AND ONE OF THE BEST OF FRIENDS.
Preface.
It is much to be regretted that no standard biography
of Sir Edwin Landseer has ever been published. This
surprising neglect borders on the mysterious, for his
name is still a household word, and no pictures could be
more popular with English-speaking communities than
the class of subjects which he made peculiarly his own,
and which he painted in such a masterly fashion. The
study of his career and experiences, as well as the
analysis and illustration of his character and genius,
could not fail to have formed a record of unique and
enduring interest. Probably it is not now possible to
gather the materials for an adequate and sympathetic
"Life." If this be really the fact, then we are con-
fronted with the paradox that the personality of one of
the greatest and most characteristic painters of the
British School of Art, who flourished throughout the
first half of Queen Victoria's epoch-making reign,
has already become as vague and shadowy as the ghost
of Hamlet's father. '
Sir Edwin Landseer
In the comparative scarcity of purely biographical
matter, therefore, I have made a virtue of necessity, and
dealt with his pictures as nearly as possible in chrono- ;
logical order, instead of treating them in the mass, so
to speak, as a thing apart. This plan is not without
obvious advantages, for of Landseer it was certainly
true that the story of his art-work is the story of his
life.
Even so, my task was simplified and the way pre-
pared for me by the zeal and devotion of Mr, Algernon;!
Graves, who brought to the compilation of his Cata-
logue of Landseer's works an unrivalled expert know-
ledge which has been invaluable to me. Mr. Graves
was so kind as to permit me to make a reasonable use
of his book, and I hope I have not abused either a
cherished privilege or his courtesy. Nor does my
obligation to Mr. Graves end here, for, in spite of
serious illness, he read all the proofs, and I am sure
that the book has benefited greatly by his revisions
and the several suggestions which he very consider-
ately offered. It seems scarcely necessary to add that
he is in no sense responsible for my opinions and
criticism.
In the Appendix will be found a list of the authorities
which I have consulted in connection with this book. I
believe I have given in the text every writer the credit
Preface
which was her or his due, but if I have been guilty of
any oversight in this regard, I trust to be forgiven for
the unintentional lapse.
Several of .Landseer's friends and admirers have
assisted me with a cordiality and readiness for which I
cannot be too grateful. Especially must I thank Mr.
W. P. Frith, R.A., for the extremely kindly interest
which he has manifested from the day I first saw him
until the end of my task. To another of Sir Edwin's old
comrades, Mr. Frederick Goodall, R.A., I am indebted
for several appropriate reminiscences, which he was so
good as to communicate verbally. My hearty acknow-
ledgments are also due to the Lady Louisa Wells, Lady
George Hamilton, the Earl of Wemyss, Lord Cheyles-
more, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, Mr. Yeend King, R.L,
and Mr. William Roberts, for help and suggestion most
generously rendered. I had expected that Mr. T. Sidney
Cooper, R.A., a colleague and co-worker in the same field
of art, would have been able to afford exceptional aid,
but I was disappointed to be told that he had not pre-
served his Landseerian letters and memoranda. The
Duke of Wellington and Lord Rosebery were so good as
to allow me to see their Landseers, and Lord Cheylesmore
was at very particular pains to be of use to me in this
respect. His Lordship's collection of Thomas Land-
seer's " touched proofs " is of course unique, and of
ix
Sir Edwin Landseer
altogether singular interest and value. Nor should I
omit to thank most warmly my friends Mr. Emery
Walker and Mr. Sydney Cockerell for the great care
bestowed upon the preparation of the plates, with
results that speak for themselves.
Excepting the frontispiece, the plates have all been
arranged chronologically. With a view to convenience
of consulting them, however, and also to avoid bringing
them in some cases too closely together, they have been
distributed at equal intervals throughout the volume.
But a note of the page on which each is mentioned is
appended to the inscription in every instance.
For information of a practical and useful kind refer-
ence should be made to the Appendix, where have been
placed, amongst other things, the lists of the pictures in
the London galleries, of the paintings mentioned in this
book, and of the prices which many works have fetched
from time to time at the historical house of Christie's.
J. A. M.
The Savage Club,
May Day, igos.
Contents.
CHAPTER I.
ANIMALS IN ART.
rAGB
Sketches by Cave Men — Sphinxes of Egypt and Bulls of Assyria —
The Elgin Marbles — Goths and Vandals — The Dark Ages —
The Renaissance — Animals on canvas — Stories of the Ancients
— The Flemish and Dutch Schools — Snyders — Cuyp — Wouver-
mans — Berchem — Paul Potter — Henriette Ronner — German
School — Riedinger — French School — Desportes — Oudry —
Horace Vernet — Decamps — Rosa Bonheur — Constant Troyon
— British School — Hogarth — Gainsborough — Morland — James
Ward — Animal-painters of the nineteenth century — Landseer's
example, and what came of it - - - i
CHAPTER H.
JOHN LANDSEER, ENGRAVER TO THE KING.
Where and when was he born? — Halcyon days for engravers —
Print-publishers' rivalry — Miss Potts — Macklin's Family
Picture— Married— Boycotted by the R.A.— A legitimate
grievance — Lectures on the Art of Engraving— Not to be
daunted — Becomes Associate Engraver — ^At the Surrey Institu-
. tion— Babylonian books — Engraver to the King — Thinking
ak)ud — Death — His children — Thomas — Charles — Four
daughters
Sir Edwin Landseer
CHAPTER III.
BIRTH AND APPRENTICESHIP.
[1802-16.]
PAGE
Birth— Foley Street— Edwin's precocity— His earliest drawings-
Under his father's tuition— His "first studio"— The Screen at
South Kensington— The model disturbed— Cross's Menagerie
at Exeter 'Change— At the Tower— Lion drawings— Truant-
Holidays in Essex— Complete self-confidence— " French Hog
and "British Boar"— Wins the Isis Medal of the Society of
Arts— First pictures at the Royal Academy— Was he a pupil
of Haydon's? — Haydon's doctrines — Enters the Royal
Academy Schools— Fuseli's " Curly-headed dog-boy "—Model
to C. R. Leslie— His record as an Exhibitor— At the Royal
Academy— At the British Institution— At other Galleries-
End of his apprenticeship 21
CHAPTER IV.
A.R.A.
[1817-26.]
" Lion," an Alpine mastiff — Tracked to its home — The dogs of
Saint Bernard— " Fighting Dogs Getting Wind" — Equal to
Snyders — "White Horse in a Stable" — Lost for twenty-four
years—" The Intruder"—" The Braggart " — "Alpine Mastiffs
Reanimating a Distressed Traveller " — Contemporary criticism
— Log-rolling — A father's protest — Backgrounds — "The Bull
and the Frog" — Dissects a lion — Leonine subjects — Drawings
for John Landseer's Essay on the Carnivora — " Rat-Catchers "
— " Tapageur "— " To-Ho "— " The Larder Invaded"— A
prize picture — Haydon's dishonoured cheque — "The Twa
Dogs " — The Upper Ten — Fertility and resource — " The
Cat's Paw" — Landseer's own house — "The Angler's Guard"
— " Sancho Panza and Dapple "— " Who's to have the Stick ? "
—"The Dog-Fox"— First visit to Scotland— Sir Walter Scott
—Highland scenery— " The Widow "—" Chevy Chace"—
" The Dog and the Shadow" — Anecdotes — Sydney Smith —
Elected Associate of the Royal Academy - 38
Contents
CHAPTER V.
R.A.
[1827-31.]
PACE
Landseer's hobbies — Deer-stalking — In the social circle — Nodes
Ambrosiance — Simplicity of a child — His men of affairs — A
lavish giver — Aye sketching — Cheque to bearer — " The Deer-
stalkers' Return " — His broader manner — "All that Remains
of the Glory of William Smith"— John Pye's Story— " The
Monkey who has seen the World" — Illustrations for books
and magazines—" High Life "— " Low Life "— " The Fireside
Party"— "The Death of the Stag in Glen Tilt "—Defects of
its qualities— " The Highland Whisky Still "—" Highland
Music " — Elected R.A. — Diploma pictures — " The Faithful
Hound" 60
CHAPTER VI.
THE GOLDEN PRIME.
[1831-40.]
Dexterity— Wells of Redleaf— The Scribblers' Book— Sir Walter
Scott — Plebeian and patrician — "Jack in 0£Sce" — "High-
land Breakfast" — Mr. Sheepshanks — Highland scenes — "The
Naughty Boy "— " Suspense "— " The Sleeping Bloodhound "
—Mr. Jacob Bell— Signs of the times— "Comical Dogs"— The
best of mimics — " The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner " — " A
Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" — "There's
Life in the Old Dog yet " — " None but the Brave Deserve
the Fair" — C^ueer criticism — ^Visitor at the R.A. Schools —
"Dignity and Impudence" — "Tethered Rams" — Illness—
" Laying Down the Law " - - - - 72
CHAPTER VII.
ROYAL FAVOUR.
The Queen's regard — Lessons in etching — Royal babies — Fancy
balls at the Palace— A guest at Balmoral — The Queen and the
Sir Edwin Landseer
artist — The influence of it all — Landseer in society — The
Prince Consort — The pig-dealer's dilemma — Landseer's hyper-
sensitiveness — Knighted — The Landseer Album compiled for
her Majesty .... . 103
CHAPTER VIII.
A GLORIOUS AFTERMATH.
[1842-50.]
Dog and stag — Lord Wemyss on landscape effects — " The
Sanctuary " — Pathetic pictures — " Marmosets " — " My Wife "
— Wall frescoes that perished — Rat and dog fight — "The
Rout of Comus " — " The Otter Speared " — " Did you order
a lion, sir? "— " Shoeing the Bay Mare "— Ruskin's lecture—
"The Challenge "—Robert Vernon— " The Lady with the
Spaniels " — " The Cavalier's Pets " — Lightning drawings —
Billiards— "Peace" — "War"— "Van Amburgh and his
Animals"— The Iron Duke— "The Random Shot," and
other deer pictures— "A Dialogue at Waterloo "—" The
Lost Sheep" - • - . 116
CHAPTER IX.
GOLD MEDALLIST.
[1850-57.] ■
Strange scene at a dinner-party— Dickens disguised— With D'Orsay
at Madame Tussaud's- Election of Sir Charles Eastlake to
the Presidency of the Royal Academy-Legislators in a temper
;7-ru ?,'^°T*,°'^"^^ Glen"— "Oberon and Titania'^—
h M-^»^' P?^=-" .Night "-"Morning "-"Children of
^^,i^»f ^T I^^. Twms "-Landseer is awarded the great
GoldMedal at Paris-" Saved "-" Uncle Tom and his Wife
S' I ^^'«.'~r^"^'"""-"®'°ws'°g "-William Wells of
xlolme Wood - -
141
XIV
Contents
CHAPTER X.
ST. Paul's.
[1858-73-]
PAGE
Failing sight — Mental distress — "The Maid and the Magpie"—
Jacob Bell's munificence — " Flood in the Highlands " — Pen
portrait of Landseer at work — The " Forest " Series — " An
Event in the Forest " — " Man Proposes, God Disposes " —
"A Piper and Pair of Nutcrackers "—" Well-bred Sitters
that never say they are Bored " — E. J. Coleman — The running
deer — " The Connoisseurs " — " Prosperity" and " Adversity"
—Elected P. R. A. —Modelling of "The Stag at Bay"— The
Lions in Trafalgar Square — Chillingham Cattle — 111 again —
Last great picture — Final works — De Profundis — Death —
Burial — Memorial Sermon — Monument in the Crypt of St.
Paul's - - - - 153
CHAPTER XI.
THE MAN.
Appearance — Character — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Disposition
— Of whom was he jealous? — The charge of meanness —
Hdbituls of his studio — His way with animals — What he
thought of the stag — A bachelor — Rosa Bonheur — Industry —
Copying — Forgery — False attributions — Translation — Delight-
fiil pictures to live vrith — The Sir Walter Scott of the animal
world - - - 17s
Appendix I. — The Royal Academy 191
II. — Authorities Consulted - 193
III. — Landseers in London Galleries - - 196
IV. — Landseers in the Auction-Room - 200
V. — Portraits of Landseer - 206
VI. — Landseers named in this Book - 207
Index - ■ - 213
List of Illustrations.
"The Connoisseurs" (p. 163)
"The Larder Invaded" (p. 46) .
"The Cat's Paw" (p. 51) .
" A Jack in Office " (p. 78)
" Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time" (p.
"The Highland Breakfast" (p. 79)
"Suspense" (p. 83) .
" The Highland Drovers' Departure
(p. 81) ....
" The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner
(p. 89) ....
"A Distinguished Member of the
Humane Society" (p. 92)
"None but the Brave Deserve the
Fair" (p. 95) .
"The Rout of Comus" (p. 123) .
"Shoeing the Bay Mare" (p. 125)
"The Challenge" (p. 128)
"Peace" (p. 134)
"War" (p. 13s)
"The Random Shot" (p. 138)
"Alexander and Diogenes (p. 139)
" The Monarch of the Glen " (p. 146)
"The Children of the Mist" (p. 147)
"Saved" (p. 150) .
"Flood in the Highlands" (p. 156)
xvi
Frontisj)
iece
face page
34
J)
32
»)
40
J)
48
»
56
)*
64
72
80
88
96
104
112
120
128
136
144
152
x6o
168
176
184
Sir Edwin Landseer.
CHAPTER I.
ANIMALS IN ART.
Sketches by Cave Men-^Sphinxes of Egypt and Bulls of Assyria — The
Elgin Marbles — Goths and Vandals — The Dark Ages — The
Renaissance — ^Animals on canvas — Stories of the Ancients— The
Flemish and Dutch Schools — Snyders — Cuyp — Wonvermans —
Berchem — Paul Potter — Henriette Ronner — German School —
Riedinger — French School — Desportes — Oudry — Horace Vernet
— Decamps — Rosa Bonheur — Constant Troyon — British School —
Hogarth — Gainsborough — Morland — James Ward — Animal-
painters of the nineteenth century — Landseer's example, and
what came of it
Animals have always been a favourite subject for pencil,
brush, and chisel. In the infancy of the race, at the
rare moments when prehistoric Man yielded to the
budding sesthetic impulse, it was animals that he drew.
Indeed, if the record of the rocks and the testimony of
cave remains can be trusted, we may go as far as to
say that our respected progenitor never drew anything
else. The creatures which he hunted, and which some-
times hunted himj filled his eye, for the altruistic
Sir Edwin Landseer
sentiment had not yet been born. Of course his
sketches could not be other than crude, but still
there is no mistaking- the figures of the mammoth and
horses and deer scratched upon the stone and ivory
which have been found in the caverns of La Madeleine
and the Charente.
But it is subsequently to the dawn of history that the
evidence becomes irresistible of the part which animals
were destined to play in Art. The artists of old Egypt
and Assyria may have employed a varied assortment of
models. What we know is that their sculptors exhibited
quite appalling vigour, the one in the sphinxes and
colossal statues — some of them, strangely suggestii^
the huge totem images of the Red man, — the other in
the monstrous human-headed winged bulls, which they
hewed out of the naked granite and other rocks.
However, "confirmations strong as proofs of Holy:
Writ" accumulate, as we gaze upon those immortal
The Elnn ^^'^^^^'^ which will perpetuate the name of
Marbles *^^ ambassador who was enlightened enough
to save the poor maimed relics from tourist
idiocy and the bullets of the ignorant Turk, and patriotic
enough to allow the British Government to purchase
them at a loss to himself of £,i(),ooo. These Athenian
sculptures, by the infinite grace of their line and the
perfect beauty of their form, prove that Pheidias and
the rest not only possessed technical knowledge and
consummate skill, the like of which the world has never
seen since their day, but must also have united to their
Art-mastery a true love for the animals which they
The Newbirth
rendered so exquisitely. Listen to the opinion of a
horse. B. R. Haydon having occasion to paint from a
blood horse, led one into his studio. Perched high up
on a bracket in the room stood the plaster cast of a
horse's head from the Elgin Marbles. The instant the
creature caught a glimpse of this it fell a-neighing.
Thus interestingly is the old story corroborated that
Apelles painted a horse so deftly that horses neighed
on seeing it. Then after ancient Greece was, dark-
ness covered the face of the earth, and it seemed as if
creative force were spent for ever.
In the then state of society it was inevitable for Goth
and Vandal to glut their ire. But when, in deliberate
contempt of such wholesome discipline, the sovereigns
and statesmen in Empire and Church wallowed as
madly as before in debauchery, villainy, and warfare,
the world grew weary of the shame and misery of it
all. The mind of man revolted, and the mists and foul
miasma of the Dark Ages dispersed before the blessed
breezes of the great Revival of Art and Letters. At
first, as was most meet, painters devoted
their art to the service of the Highest, . ^"
Then, with the process of the suns, their
scope widened, and genius worked in specialised modes.
Schools of painting arose and animals resumed their
sway, but under changed conditions, for obviously
the heroic treatment befitting sculpture was scarcely
appropriate to canvas.
In point of fact, too, it is only since the Renaissance
that the painted animal has come within our ken.
Sir Edwin Landseer
What the ancients achieved in this line we have no
means of knowing: their work has perished. But
tradition tells of marvellous cunning— how Zeuxis asked
Parrhasius to draw the curtain (which the latter had
painted) that he might see the picture behind ; ho\n^
birds flew in at the windows to peck at Zeuxis' painted
grapes, just as horses neighed at Apelles' painted steed;
and similar feats of copying which a Russian might
admire to-day.
However, for the animal-painter as such — that is, for
the man who painted animals rather than genre, history,
™ . , or Madonnas — it would be idle to go back
J 7^ J z. beyond the sixteenth century. And some
ana Dutch i , . . • .. • ^ 4.1,
„ , , schools were richer in this respect than
others were. The Flemish and Dutcb
painters — it is difficult to separate them — were amongst
the strongest, as is not surprising when we consider the
genius of the people. At the head may be named Franz
Snyders (1579-1657), who excelled in painting animals
in their proper pursuits, so to speak, and whose heart
was in the chase pre-eminently. He is said to have put
in many of the animals in Rubens's pictures, although
Rubens could paint animals with a master's hand when
he chose. Of quite another stamp was Albert Cuyp
(1606-83), who loved flocks and herds, and though
too shrewd to idealise his kye and sheep, nevertheless
invested his rural scenes with rare poetic feeling. ^
"Cooper," said a brother-artist as he praisedja
charming little cow-group by Sidney of that ilk, " Cuyp
must look to his laurels."
Henriette Ronner
" Cuyp ! " quoth the grand old man of Canterbury,
" Cuyp couldn't draw a cow like that."
" Just so," was the reply, *' but then he was a poet."
Philip Wouvermans (1620-68) especially affected the
horse, which he handled with extraordinary versatility,
a cavalry charge showing him at his best. With
Nicholas Berchem (1624-83) we hark back to more
homely subjects, and he was notable also for his spirited
etchings of sheep, goats, and cows. Paul Potter
(1625-54) was only twenty-nine years old when he died,
but his picture of a "Young Bull" in the gallery at The
Hague has justly given him a place amongst the
immortals. Yet this very picture, which is now price-
less, was sold at Haarlem by public auction on the
19th of August, 1749, for ;^s6. The Flemish School
counts no greater name than that of Henriette Ronner
(born 182 1 ), of whom it is simple truth to say that she
is the finest painter of cats that ever lived. Her dogs,
too, are excellent, but her cats — by which we mean the
friend of woman and not the untamed creatures of the
zoologist — are supreme.
In the German School there is, curiously enough, but
one outstanding painter of animals. This was John
Elias Riedinger (1695-1767), who was a German
huntsman before he took to art, and whose School
pictures of stag and boar hunts therefore
rank with the very finest work in this kind produced by
any school.
Although, with few exceptions, the French School
has not been conspicuous for its animal-painters, it
Sir Edwin Landseer
would have been singular had not " le Sport" attracted
several exponents. Francois Desportes (1661-1743)
and Jean Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755) both worked in^
other lines of art, and both turned later to incident^
„ , connected with the chase, in which they
„ , . won their chief successes. With Horace
Vernet (1789-1863), on the other hand, "la
Gloire" counted for everything, but he must be men-
tioned here, not because he was an animal-painter
above all things, but because he was the first French»|
man that did justice to the horse in battle. His camels
also were finely drawn. Nor was Alexandre Gabriel
Decamps (1803-1860), who was fatally injured whilst
hunting in the forest of Fontainebleau, by any means
exclusively a painter of animals, but he loved them so
sincerely and had so full a knowledge of their habits'
that those pictures of his in which they are the most
prominent features are amongst his finest works. But
in the French, as in the Flemish School, the greates1|
and worthiest name is that of a woman, Rosa Bonheur
(1822-99), whose " Horse Fair," of which there is a
replica in the National Gallery in London, is a monu-
ment to her genius as a painter of animals. And next
to her must be placed as "runner-up," Constant Troyon
(1810-65), who in the spheres of the blest tastes the
sweets of posthumous fame.
Although William Hogarth (1697-1764) painted dogs
as accessories with wonderful knowledge, and Thomas
Gainsborough (1727-88) began his career with draw-
ings of donkeys, sheep, cows, and horses, it is rather
6
Morland and Ward
with poor, ne'er-do-weel George Morland (1763-1804)
that the brilliant school of British animal-painters took
rise. Not his to idealise and use the grand Ttritiih
manner, but place him in barn, or sty, or School
stable, and he would paint horses and pigs in
such surroundings with extraordinary fidelity and skill.
His "Inside of a Stable" in the National Gallery in
London, which has been so superbly etched by Mr.
C. O. Murray, is a perfect example of what can be
done by a man of narrow range and limited vision, who
loved animals with the dogged fondness of a Bohemian,
and who, within his bounds, was an artist to the
finger-tips. An altogether different man, with ampler
technical equipment perhaps, was James Ward, R.A.
(1770-1859), now best known by the picture of an
"Alderney Bull, Cow, and Calf" in the English
National Gallery, which was painted in emulation of
Paul Potter's famous work, and which, in the judg-
ment of Mr. John Forbes-Robertson, is " a stronger,
though scarcely a truer or finer piece of animal
painting," an opinion which is far too lenient. His
" Bulls Fighting," in the Victoria and Albert Museum
at South Kensington, is a vastly better work and has
several really great qualities. Ward rejoiced too often
to spread himself out over an immense canvas, an
eccentricity which jeopardised his fame. No amount
of correct drawing and fine observation of animal life
could make such a picture as "Gordale Scar, Yorkshire"
— a huge chasm with cattle — attractive, and it may be
doubted whether the artist himself felt any interest
7
Sir Edwin Landseer
in it. But Ward's idiosyncrasy was not infectious.
T. Sidney Cooper, R.A. (1803-1902), gained many tri-
umphs by the beauty of small pictures of cattle and sheep,
distinguished by accuracy of drawing and harmonious
composition. J. F. Herring (1795-1865) painted race-
horses and sporting dogs admirably, and Richard
Ansdell, R.A. (1815-85), showed a delicate touch and
was an adept in graceful grouping. Amongst the pre-
Raphaelites only W. Holman Hunt made a speciality
of animals, and even he did not pursue this line — why,
it is not easy to say, for his "Strayed Sheep" is
one of the world's masterpieces, a veritable gem.
Peter Graham's Highland cattle, Briton Riviere's
many beautiful pictures, the learning of which is
never abused, J. T. Nettleship's and J. M. Swan's
lions and tigers, reaching the very acme of excel-
lence, and the remarkable promise of Lucy Kemp
Welch's horses, all go to show how varied in
achievement and how strong in technique the British
School has grown, in respect at least of its animal-,
painters. If they sustain comparison with those of any
contemporary school whatsoever, and they will pass
through the ordeal victoriously, this result is in no
slight degree due to the splendid example which was
set them by Sir Edwin Landseer. He is rightly placed
with the makers of British Art. To describe him, with
The Times, as " the Shakespeare of the world of dogs,"|
or, with Cuthbert Bede, as the " RaiFaelle des chiens,"
may be to move the mirth of the groundlings; but what
such phrasing is meant to imply is, that he was not
8
His Mission
merely a correct and clever copyist, but was gifted with
creative power and thought. To be painter, preacher,
and poet all in one is to be a well-doer to the race;
for the beasts that perish are with us always, and the
lesson of humanity, whether taught by picture or by
parable, is, like the quality of mercy, "twice bless'd;
it blesseth him that gives and him that takes."
There is a fashion amongst some critics and painters,
especially the younger men, to pooh-pooh Landseer
and sneer at him as an anecdotist. Uncon- ,
sciously they are paymg a great tribute
. V • ■ T •.• • Example
to his genius. In any case criticism '^
which confounds cause and effect is both futile and
superficial. Looking at animals from an altogether
fresh standpoint, and detecting in them qualities and
investing them with attributes which none of his fore-
runners had had the wit to observe or devise, Sir Edwin
became the founder of a new school. The sentiment
and humour, no less than the technical merits, of his
pictures won instant popularity. At one time engravings
after his works were to be seen in nearly every home,
and in books innumerable. Accordingly a host of
imitators, or co-workers in the same field, arose, for
demand begets supply in Art as in other things. During
fifty years and more one has constantly seen the tamer
creatures treated a la Landseer by capable men like
Samuel J. Carter, C. Burton Barber, Gourlay Steell,
Yates Carrington, Harrison Weir, and by others not
so competent. In a sense, therefore, it is not sur-
prising to hear superior persons impatiently protest
9
Sir Edwin Landseer
that Sir Edwin was only a story-teller. A vogue may
be overdone in any art or craft, but this is not to
say that the author of it may not have been absolutely
sincere and actuated by the loftiest motives, nor that
the mode was not worth establishing-, and ought never
to have been set up. Else you might fall foul of
Raphael because you are sick of Madonnas. Landseer
succeeded in realising a high ideal, and he who does
that leaves the world a little better than he found it.
Let us try to ascertain what manner of man Sir Edwin
was, and trace the story of his life and work.
CHAPTER II.
JOHN LANDSEER, ENGRAVER TO THE KING.
Where and when was he born? — Halcyon days for engravers —
Print-publishers' rivalry — Miss Potts — Macklin's Family Picture
— Married — Boycotted by the R.A. — A legitimate grievance-
Lectures on the Art of Engraving — Not to be daunted — Becomes
Associate Engraver — At the Surrey Institution — Babylonian books
— Engraver to the King — Thinking aloud — Death — His children
— Thomas — Charles — Four daughters.
Although they little knew it, the Landseer children
aptly exemplified the doctrine of Heredity. John
Landseer, their father, was a man of remarkable force
of character and firmness of purpose. He was the son
of a jeweller, and, according to Mr. F. G.
Stephens, was born in London in 1761, or, ■'
according- to Mr. Cosmo Monkhouse, in
Lincoln in 1769. Seeing that he was a man of some
note in his day and lived to behold the distinction of
all his sons, it is passing strange that neither the
place nor the year of his birth is known for sure. After
serving his time as an engraver with William Byrne,
he soon acquired a good connection with the leading
publishers. At that period engraving on metal was a
flourishing craft. Thomas Bewick, who was to give
wood-engraving its greatest impetus, had not yet
Sir Edwin Landseer
appeared on the scene, though his day was at hand.
Meanwhile the rivalry of print-publishers made things
"hum" for artists and engravers alike. When John
Boydell, Alderman and Lord Mayor of "famous London
Town," projected his gigantic " Shakespeare," Macklin
retaliated with an edition of the Bible illustrated on
a scale of equal grandeur, and so the competition went
on. Linking the present with the past, it may be added
that Messrs. Henry Graves & Company, of 6 Pall
Mall, occupy Boydell's house, and follow with even
greater success the Alderman's business.
John Landseer worked for Macklin, and at the
publisher's house met the woman who became
his wife. This was a Miss Potts, who
Miss Potts appears to have mingled on friendly terms
with many of the principal painters. She
stood to Sir Joshua Reynolds for a reaper in the picture
of " The Gleaners," which he painted for Macklin in
1788, and which was, for the nonce, jocularly known as
" Macklin's Family Picture," inasmuch as the publisher,
his good lady, and his daughter, besides their friend.
Miss Potts, all figured in it. John Landseer's wooing
sped well, and in 1793 he was "married an' a'."
Then bairns began to multiply, but the engraver
seemed to think "the mair the merrier," and worked
at his plates like a Trojan.
In common with his brother-engravers, he had one
substantial grievance. For reasons best known to
themselves, the Royal Academy, whilst admitting
painters, sculptors, and architects to full honours.
Engravers and the R.A.
drew the line at engravers, whom they recognised
only as Associate Engravers, and in a class apart at
that, with the privilege (not the right) of
exhibiting two works every year, as against -^
the eight which full members might send ^
in. The engravers naturally ' objected to ' "
this invidious distinction, and John Landseer, John
Pye, Edward Goodall, Sir Robert Strange, and, indeed,
the foremost practitioners without exception protested
against such scurvy treatment. Some of them decided
to ignore the infant institution altogether, whilst others
determined to agitate for justice. It would be interest-
ing to know why the engravers were thus slighted.
They were most of them splendid artists, who would
have been an ornament to the Academy. That they
resented the wanton insult passed upon them as a body
is not to be wondered at, and certain of them boy-
cotted the Schools by sending their sons to private
classes or to take lessons at the studios of painters.
John Landseer was not of this company, as we shall
see afterwards, but he constituted himself the champion
of his fellows. Being invited in 1806 to deliver a series
of lectures on Engraving before the Royal
Institution, he vigorously vindicated the
claims of his Art to an independent status,
and also denounced in scathing terms the °^ °
danger no less than the folly of permitting ignorance
to preside over knowledge as manifested in the attempts
to palm oflF inferior plates upon the public, this being, as
he said, a fraud upon the public taste and the private
13
Sir Edwin Landseer
purse, — a not closely veiled allusion to the deterioration
caused by the too purely commercial spirit in which
some publishers were conducting their business. This
was the opinion of John Landseer, who was not given
to mincing matters; but so far as Alderman Boydell
was concerned, he employed the best talent both in
painting and engraving, and did more for the advance-
ment of Art than any other man of his day. Such
caustic criticism, however, was more than flagellate
flesh and blood could stand. A "hole-and-corner"
meeting of the Managers of the Royal Institution, act-
ing in the interests of Josiah Boydell, the Alderman's
nephew, was hastily summoned, and the lectures were
brought to a premature close with the delivery of
the sixth. But John Landseer was no respecter of
persons and declined to be intimidated. His reply
was to publish the Lectures in the following year,
verbatim et literatim, with comments, in which the
original strictures were well "rubbed in." By the
irony of events he was elected an Associate Engraver
in 1806, the very year in which he fulminated his
counterblast. He suffered himself to accept the
honour, because he thought he might be able to
advance his cause from the inside. He was not the
man to sell himself. He petitioned the Academicians
and even the Prince Regent for fairplay, ' but he
addressed deaf ears, and it was not until after his
death — and indeed apropos of the vacancy in their ranks
thereby caused — that the disabilities of the engravers
were abolished. Thus tardily was justice done. But
14
His Father's Lectures
the whirligig of Time brought in a cruel revenge, for,
by another turn of Fortune's wheel, the art of engraving
has well-nigh perished before the onslaught of the
various more or less mechanical processes by which
prints after the best originals can be multiplied, without
the fine artistic qualities of the older method, but with
a rapidity and a cheapness that set all engravers at
defiance. 'Tis true 'tis pity, and pity 'tis 'tis true.
It looked as if John Landseer had become soured on
engraving. He lectured now and again. Henry Crabb
Robinson, under date of December 5th, 1813, notes that
in the evening he went to the Surrey Institution in
Albion Street, Blackfriars Road — a sort of south-side
rival to the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street,
Piccadilly, which collapsed after an existence of thir-
teen years — to hear a lecture on the Philosophy of
Art by John Landseer. " He is animated in his style>"
writes the diarist, ' ' but his animation is produced by
indulgence in sarcasms, and in emphatic diction. He
pronounces his words in italics; and by colouring
strongly he produces an effect easily." That was
rather odd, for there is nothing flamboyant in his
lectures on Engraving; but John Landseer had a life-
long habit of dotting his i's and crossing his Ifs, without
so much as a " By your leave." Whether or not he was
chagrined at the nondescript position of his Art, he
turned aside for a period to pursue Archae-
ology. As a Fellow of the Society of F.S.A,
Antiquaries his studies were something of
a hobby, which he rode to much the same purpose
IS
Sir Edwin Landseer
as Mr. Jonathan Oldbuck, if with less gusto and
parade of learning than was shown by the proto-
type of Samuel Pickwick, Esq. With wonted zeal he
published two books — one on Babylonian gems (1817),
and the other on Babylonian remains (1823) — neither
of which made any permanent mark. However, he
returned from these incursions into ancient history with
renewed interest in his proper vocation. His hand had
lost none of its cunning, and in 1826 he was appointed
Engraver to the King (George IV.). In 1831 he
published what was probably his best plate — namely,
"Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller,"
after the picture, especially fine for a youth of eighteen,
which Edwin had painted eleven years before.
As he advanced in life John Landseer became dis-
tressingly deaf, and had to carry a trumpet about with
~, . , . him. He also contracted the unfortunate
Ai J habit of thinking aloud. His son Charles
lived in Southampton Street, Fitzroy Square,
opposite to the house occupied by Edward Corbould.
One rainy day the old gentleman called at Charles's.
Corbould knew that the son had gone out, and, as the
weather was veiy unpleasant, he stepped across and
asked Mr. Landseer to come into his place and wait.
Here he did the amiable, showing his pictures and so
forth. There was a picture on the easel which John
Landseer praised highly. By-and-by Corbould heard
a strange soliloquy. " I never saw such damned rub-
bish in my life. How on earth can he make a living at
it ? Seems a nice, pleasant fellow, too ; but cannot
16
« Tom "
paint, and knows nothing of it," with more astounding
thoughts, unconsciously outspoken, to a like effect.
Corbould related the incident with great glee to Charles,
who told it to Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., who was good
enough to communicate it to me.
It was beautiful to watch the father's honest pride in
the growing fame and success of his sons. They owed
almost everything to him, and it was a happy dispensa-
tion that enabled him to see the fruit of his soul's
travail before he passed away. Nisi Dominus frustra,.
John Landseer died on the 29th of February, 1852, and
was buried in Highgate Cemetery.
Of his fourteen children only seven reached adoles-
cence — three sons and four daughters. Thomas, the
eldest son, was born in 1795, and became an j- ,
engraver. To his sympathy, skill, and taste, t ^ ^
Edwin owed a great deal, for he engraved „ ■
no fewer than one hundred and three of his
brother's pictures, including the most famous, in addi-
tion to many etchings. In 1827 he published a volume
entitled Monkey-ana, or Men in Miniature, a series of
twenty-five studies, mostly satirical, designed and
etched by himself. These plates are of such surprising
cleverness, such extraordinary merit, that it is difficult
to believe he was not assisted in the drawing of them
by his brother, of whom they are quite worthy — which
said, no higher praise can be given. That Thomas was
not a Landseerian solely was demonstrated by his
splendid plate after Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair."
But the Royal Academy were in no hurry to crown his
17 C
Sir Edwin Landseer
genius, for it was not till 1868 — twelve years before his
death — that they elected him an Associate.
"Thomas was a most amiable and happy man,"
Mr. Algernon Graves writes to me. " I knew him
„ T " s'"'^^ ^ ^^^ quite a child, when, I remember,
^ he once gave me a bag of sweets that had
Landseer gp^gwhat melted in his pocket. As he
handed them to me, he said, in the usual accent of
a man who could not hear himself speak— ["Tom"
was deaf, too] — ' They are fishes in a per-spi-ra-ti-on.'
He always wore a beaming smile. Many a time have
I been with him in his studio in Cunningham Place,
within a stone's-throw of Sir Edwin's house, when
he was engraving plates for my father, who first
employed him shortly after 1830. He was very
conscientious in his work, but his wife was not so
particular. She often brought down a proof of a
half-finished plate, but before opening the parcel she
would dilate for half-an-hour on the splendid qualities
of the newest plate, which, by her account in every
case, was the finest he had ever done. My father, who
was used to it, merely looked at the proof and said,
'Take it back and tell Tom to finish it. It is a splendid
first proof.' Mrs. Tom, who wanted a new dress,
was always in the hopes she would get the plate
passed and draw the money at once. Tom would
afterwards tell me he knew the plate was'not finished,
but she said to him, ' Oh, you leave it to me. I will
get Graves to pass it.' She never did. My father
was too experienced an old bird for that. I was rather
18
Charles
a favourite with poor old Tom, as when I went to his
place to dinner, I used to devote the whole evening
to writing him all the Art news on scraps of paper.
When he signed proofs my father always gave him
one hundred cigars for one hundred signatures. "
Charles Landseer, born in 1799, also took to Art,
and affected historical subjects. Though consumed with
zeal for his art, he was the least talented of the trio.
However, honours were not denied him. In 1837
he became an Associate, and eight years later a fully-
fledged Academician. He was appointed Keeper in
1851, his chief duty in that capacity being to teach in
the antique school. ' This position he filled for twenty
years. When he died, in 1879, it was found that he
had not been insensible either of the gracious courtesy
of his fellows, or of the needs of young artists of
promise, for he left the handsome sum of ;^io,ooo to
found four scholarships, two in painting and two in
sculpture, of the value of £/^o a year each, tenable for
two years, to be competed for by students on the com-
pletion of their second year of attendance.
Of the four daughters, Jane, the eldest, married Mr.
Charles Christmas ; and Emma, the youngest, became
Mrs. Mackenzie. Neither Anna Maria, the second, nor
Jessica, the third, married. The latter, who was born
in 1810 and died in 1880, painted miniatures and land-
scapes of considerable merit, etched two of Sir Edwin's
pictures — the Scots terrier "Vixen" (1824) and "Lady
Louisa Russell Feeding a Donkey" (1826, from a draw-
ing done in the year before at Woburn Abbey), — and
19
Sir Edwin Landseer
made a copy on ivory of his "Beauty's Bath" (a
portrait of Miss Emily Peel with her dog Fido, painted
in 1839), which is now in the possession of Queen
Alexandra. Mrs. Mackenzie and Miss Jessica, but
chiefly the latter, the "Jessie" of his letters, officiated
as housekeepers to their illustrious bachelor-brother.
" Mrs. Mackenzie, when I first knew her," Mr. Graves
writes, " was not a favourite with Edwin. I have
heard that he quarrelled with her, because she would
copy his pictures and sign them E. L. (Emma
Landseer). I never saw her in his house after about
1865, but nevertheless she ultimately became the
heiress of all three brothers and also of Jessica. The
two sisters — the only ones I knew — were quite opposites
in appearance and manner. Emma always struck me
as being very haughty, whereas Jessica was a meek,
amiable little body, who looked after her brother's
house in a very quiet, unostentatious way."
20
CHAPTER III.
BIRTH AND APPRENTICESHIP.
[1802-16.]
Birth — Foley Street — Edwin's precocity — His earliest drawings —
Under his father's tuition — His " first studio " — The Screen at
South Kensington — The model disturbed^ — Cross's Menagerie at
Exeter 'Change — At the Tower — Lion drawings — Truant —
Holidays in Essex — Complete self-confidence — "French Hog''
and "British Boar" — Wins thelsis Medal of the Society of Arts —
First pictures at the Royal Academy — Was he a pupil of Hay-
don's ? — Haydon's doctrines — Enters the Royal Academy Schools
— Fuseli's "Curly-headed dog-boy" — Model to C. R. Leslie — His
record as an Exhibitor — At the Royal Academy — At the British
Institution — At other Galleries — End of his apprenticeship.
Edwin Landseer was born at 71 Queen Anne Street
East, in the parish of Marylebone, London, on the 7th
of March, 1802. All the memoirs and t>- ,j,
biographical sketches agree that his second /
Christian name was Henry. But the point
is open to serious question, for, according to the- death
certificate, which was signed by Dr. Humby, who was
present at the passing, and in all likelihood derived
his information from Edwin's brothers or sisters,
or both, his Christian names were Edwin John. This
fact has hitherto escaped observation. The baptismal
Sir Edwin Landseer
register of the parish church for 1802 has been carefully
searched, but without avail; and his will is described
as that of Edwin Landseer, and signed simply " E.
Landseer."
It is of interest to note that the name of the street
was changed a few years afterwards. There had been
much confusion between it and Queen Anne Street, its
continuation westwards — where Turner and Edmund
Burke resided, — and when Portland Place and adjoining
thoroughfares came to be built, it was resolved that
Queen Anne Street East should be called Foley Street,
out of compliment to Lord Foley, whose house had been
swept away by these improvements. Thenceforward
John Landseer's house was known as 33 Foley Street.
In those days the whole neighbourhood was peopled by
artists, mostly eminent men. But in Queen Anne
Street the painters have been quite unable to withstand
the inroads of doctors and surgeons, who now occupy it
almost exclusively. As for Foley Street, its case is
even sadder, for it presents an aspect of shabby gentility
that readily enough explains why the artists have
sought other quarters. It will be safe to say that not a
single painter now lives in either street — a sweeping
change wholly effected within the nineteenth century.
Yet here and there a teaching class will still be found in
the locality ; in fact, Heatherley's famous studio is
within measurable distance of Edwin Landseer's first
home. It is not to the credit of the fraternity that the
houses of so many distinguished painters, Landseer
amongst them, bear no commemorative tablet.
Boyish Drawings
Just as Pope " lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers
came," so little Edwin had to draw, for he "couldna help
it," like the Paisley body. Wee Davie Wilkie „
covering his nursery walls at Cults with
designs made by the aid of burnt stick, and Giotto
sketching on rocks whilst herding his sheep, were
instances of like precocity. The child's inborn genius
manifested itself when he could do little more than
toddle. His sisters assured Mrs. Richmond Ritchie
that his very earliest drawings were made from copies
set him by his mother. But as these efforts were in-
variably confined either to a shoe or a currant-pudding,
the baby-boy soon wearied of both studies.
His industry and budding talents, however, attracted
the attention of his father, who took him in hand
seriously from the first. If his mother gave him copies,
John Landseer — anticipating, by a century the custom of
to-day — bade him draw from the objects themselves.
It is certain that a drawing on these lines was made
when Edwin was only four years old. This was a
drawing of a candlestick, rough enough, as may be
supposed, but evincing more than boyish skill. The
little chap showed it to his father, who pointed out a
few defects. "Now," he said, "you must finish it
to-night before you go to bed." This was old Land-
seer's way occasionally. The boy recognising the note,
set to work to improve the drawing and to remedy its
faults as best he could. It is the universal testimony
that John Landseer, though at times apt to be a trifle
Spartan, trained his children splendidly.
Sir Edwin Landseer
Undoubtedly it was a grand thing for the boy to pass
under the influence of such a man. The father sedulously
rp » . , impressed upon the child the supreme neces-
, . °^ -^ sity then and always of keeping his eyes
open and his wits about him, of copying the
animals in their haunts, and of studying generally from
Nature. This led to constant journeyings to Hamp-
stead and the fields and lanes which at that date lay as
open country between the Heath and the home in
Marylebone. Mr. F. G. Stephens has printed an in-
teresting account, which Miss Eliza Meteyard sent him,
of those early walks. The old man was in the habit of
taking a daily constitutional almost to the very end of
his life. William Howitt was often his companion on
these tramps abroad, and one evening as they strolled
along Finchley Road, towards Child's Hill, John Land-
seer paused at an old stile and pointed out two fields as
Edwin's "first studio." It seems that the laddie had
stopped at the spot to watch the cows as they grazed.
His father lifted him over, and giving him paper and
pencil, told him to sketch a cow. After that the visits
were almost of daily occurrence. The boys left home
in the forenoon, and the father went to fetch them a
few hours later. He there and then inspected . their
work, and made them correct mistakes on the spot. It
was nearly a case of " No. song, no supper " with him;
or rather, " No accurate drawing, no tea." The method
was thorough, and the boys thrived on it in every sense,
for they attained distinction in their art and all exceeded
the Psalmist's span.
24
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Juvenile Work
There may still be seen, both in private collections and
in the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington,
numerous examples of Edwin's youthful skill. — /
Many of the former were engraved several -p. .,
years ago in the Art Journal, and afterwards
published in a large quarto volume to which Mr. Cosmo
Monkhouse supplied a very readable commentary, in
which, however, he persisted in taking the early works
too frequently au grand sdrieux, criticising them with a
rigour that is sometimes laughable. Edwin's efforts
were wonderful for a mere child, but it is dealing un-
fairly with him and them to ignore the fact that they
were juvenile productions. They contain the promise
of his riper years, demonstrating here, too, that " the
child is father of the man," and are interesting as
helping us to measure his progress. But they must
always be taken for what they are — the work of a clever
and diligent student of tenderest years. For instance,
one of the nine of such drawings shown on a screen at
South Kensington is a carefully-rendered copy of a
dog, made at the age of five. The animal carries a tail
and hind quarters that a baboon might envy, but we
feel the perfect sincerity of the lad's work as we remark
the abnormality; we recognise that it is the effort of a
young boy, talented, but yet a boy. In short, had the
drawing been better it might have taxed credulity.
The parrakeet on its perch, another of this set, is
remarkable for delicacy and sureness of touch. But
for clear and undeniable evidence of grit the little
composition, in the same group, of a family of pigs
25
Sir Edwin Landseer
demands special mention, for its power of rightly-
directed observation, on the part of a boy of eight, can
scarcely ever have been surpassed. With legitimate pride,
the father, by the friendly hand of John Pye, took the pre-
caution to certify these nine drawings . They mostly bear
the boy's name and age, and one — that of a lazy bull,
lying down chewing the cud — offers the further informa-
tion that it was drawn " when he was first breeched."
Edwin's industry was always conspicuous. When-
ever, owing to stress of weather, he was unable to go
out, he was generally at the window taking notes.
One day cries of vexation disturbed the household. It
then appeared that he had been sketching a horse
standing on the cab-rank facing the house in Foley
Street. By-and-by the driver, ignorant, of course, of
what was going on within-doors, removed the shoulder-
cloth from the animal, thereby depriving the artist of an
important part of his model and spoiling the study.
Naturally, it was domesticated animals that Edwin first
sketched, but he was still a young boy when he began to
J- ■ draw lions and tigers from life. The only
„ • places where he could study such animals
Ura/viitngs '^ •'
were Exeter 'Change and the Tower. In-
terest in them may have been whetted by the proximity
to his father's house of the former place, a ramshackle
building in the Strand that had once been Exeter House.
In the days of its degeneracy part of it was occupied by
Pidcock's Wild Beast Show. The animals were con-
fined in cages and dens upstairs, in rooms the walls of
which were painted with pictures of tropical scenery to
26
The Tower Lions
supply local colour, and the roar of the liotis and tigers
often scared the horses in the street below. Pidcock
was succeeded by Polito, but in Edwin's time Edward
Cross was owner of the menagerie, which, it may be
added, was removed in 1828 to the King's Mews at
Charing Cross, Exeter 'Change being demolished two
years afterwards to make way for Exeter Hall. Long
before this, however, Landseer's apprenticeship had
ended. Cross took a great interest in the young artist,
and gave him every facility for prosecuting his studies.
Landseer took to the lion with an alacrity that showed
how strongly he realised the art potentialities of the
king of beasts. There is a sketch of a " Lioness and
Cubs," dated 1809, in Mr. Monkhouse's volume, which
displays such extraordinary spirit that it hardly seems
possible it could have been made from life. Yet at the
age of seven it is beyond question that he was already
in the habit of paying frequent visits to the Tower of
London as well as to Mr. Cross's exhibition. Lions,
leopards, tigers, bears, and a few other creatures had
been kept in the Tower ever since the thirteenth century,
and when the menagerie was abandoned in 1834, the
animals were removed to the Zoo. At the Tower,, too,
the keeper had taken kindly to the boy. One day
Edwin presenting himself as usual, was informed by
a warder that the keeper's wife had been dreadfully
mauled by one of the animals. The boy went to the
keeper to express his sorrow for what had happened.
" It's true, my lad, that my wife's been terribly hurt,
but go on with your drawing and do not mind me."
27
Sir Edwin Landseer
The poor keeper, distracted as he was, wished to pay
his customary courtesy to the bright boy who had won
the way into his heart.
Nor was this the whole measure of Edwin's diligence,
for the admirable boy also learned to etch, and handled
the needle with ease and dexterity. Mr.
Versatility Algernon Graves refers one set of eight
etchings of animals of such varied outline
and "build" as the lion, tiger, sheep, cow, bull, donkey,
boar, horse, and goat to his seventh, eighth, ninth, and
tenth years. But how did this versatility consort with
the gaining of book-learning? There seems reason to
believe that Edwin was not "gleg at the uptak," and
it has even been insinuated — and we think it highly
probable — that he often played truant. What was a
boy with a ruling passion to do but give school the go-
by when a cattle show was held in Islington, or a new
animal arrived at Exeter 'Change, or another visit was
due at London Tower? Depend upon it, like Tarn
O'Shanter, John Landseer "kenn'd what was what fu'
brawly," and winked at the pardonable vagrancy.
A hundred years ago, when change of air was needed,
it had to be found not far from home. When Edwin
required an actual holiday, though his open-
■ jj. air life kept him as a rule in fine fettle, he
was generally sent to friends in Essex.
Mr. W. W. Simpson, of Beleigh Grange, near Mal-
don, or Mr. George Wilson, at Walthamstow, always
had a hearty welcome for the lad. But with change
of scene there was no change of occupation, and
28
Studies from Life
in country as in town the boy steadily pursued his
observation of the habits and character of the animals
around him. Late in life he was shown the sketch
of a Persian cat which he had made at Maldon in
1812, and which he had given to Lucy Potter, one of
Mr. Simpson's domestics. It would appear to have in-
terested him, for he playfully annotated the drawing- —
" Sketched at Maldon by the little boy Edwin when
ten years old, and now Sir E. Landseer, an old boy,
1866."
From earliest boyhood Landseer took his own
measure completely. Such self-confidence is a virtue
when grounded, as it was in his case, in solid worth and
acknowledged merit. Of his own accord, or on the sug-
gestion o^his father, he had begun to study anatomy, and
the quality of his work was immediately strengthened
thereby. Messrs. Henry Graves & Co. possess a
drawing of a pointer's skull which he made in 1812.
In the following year he produced his first portrait, that
of " C. Simmons, Esq., on a Pony," and tried his
'prentice hand on the human figure in composition, his
earliest effort in this line representing a man engaged in
" Sheep-shearing," the fruit, no doubt, of one of his
Essex excursions. To the same source, probably, we
owe a vigorous sketch of a butcher " Ringing a Pig,"
the mingled distress and alarm of the creature being
admirably rendered, and a thoroughly sound and accu-
rate drawing of a " Favourite Pointer," both belonging
to 1814. In this year, too, he had a sly hit at the
European situation, for his "French Hog" and "British
29
Sir Edwin Landseer
Boar" — the one lean, lank, wolfish; the other sleek,
well-conditioned, impregnable — offer the necessary con-
trast which an observant lad would readily detect
in the national feeling. In the former a cheeky bantam
crows lustily from the roof of the sty, but in the latter
the chanticleer is of altogether sedater behaviour, as
befits his vast and immovable companion.
But 1814 was memorable in a personal sense, for he
had now made up his mind to challenge public criticism
— a pleasant further proof of his belief in
PhT, • 8 ^''"^®lf- "^^^ Society of Arts in the Adelphi
X I t e — ^ time-honoured body which still exists
^^ and, one may hope, flourishes — in pursuance
of one branch of its usefulness, was in the habit of
bestowing medals in encouragement of what was then
quaintly called the Polite Arts. Both Edwin and
Thomas Landseer secured the Isis silver medal of the
Society, the former for a drawing of a "Hunting
Horse," the latter for an oil-painting of a " Farmer's
Horse." This success was followed up at the age of
thirteen — a number of no ill omen for Edwin — by his
d^hut at the Royal Academy. In 181 5 he sent two
pictures to the annual Exhibition — " Pointer Bitch and
Puppy" and "A Mule" (all three animals the property of
his friend Mr. W. W. Simpson, of Beleigh Grange) —
and both were accepted. He figured in the catalogue
as " Landseer, Master E., at Mr. Landseer's, 33 Foley
Street." Already a notable lad, his portrait appeared at
the same Gallery in the same year under the title of
"The Cricketer" (a hint, surely, of some love for the
30
B. R. Haydon
noble English pastime), from the hand of a young com-
rade, Master J. Hayter. Edwin had now found his
feet, and was wise enough to solicit the counsel and
instructions of others besides his father and his
brothers.
Accordingly, whilst the boy was still at his lucky age
of thirteen, John Landseer took his three sons to see
B. R. Haydon. ' ^
' ' When do you mean to let your beard grow „ ,
and take pupils ? " inquired Landseer p&re.
" If my instructions are likely to be of use or value,
TlOW,"
It was arranged there and then that Thomas and
Charles were to go every Monday to Haydon, who
should give them enough work for the week, whilst
Edwin was at once entrusted with Haydon's own dissec-
tion of the lion, and bidden dissect animals himself as
the only means of acquiring a knowledge of their frame
and what it contained and supported. Haydon declared
that it was this visit of John Landseer's, and its out-
come, which decided him to form a school, the Land-
seers' rapid progress under his tuition acting as an
additional incentive. "I resolved," he writes, "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.'' And
the sixteenth clause of his will, dated June 22nd, 1846,
drawn up just before the unhappy man put an end to his
existence, set forth : — " I have done my duty to the Art
— educated the greatest artists of the day — Eastlake,
31
Sir Edwin Landseer
the Landseers, and Lance — and I hope advanced the
whole feeling of the country." It is certainly significant
that James Elmes, the editor oi Annals of the Fine Arts,
who knew the facts and wrote at the time, in an article
on "The Exhibition of Drawings by Mr. Haydon's
Pupils," in the fourth volume of that periodical, claims
credit for mentioning the efforts of these young men
whilst their names were as yet unknown, instead of
coming in "at the fag-end" and joining in a common
chorus of praise, and includes Edwin amongst those
who had received instruction from Haydon.
In a broad sense, unquestionably Haydon was one of
Landseer's teachers. To what degree, if at all, the
IT J > youth attended him systematically is not
„ . ■ known : but it was erring on the safe side
Jjoctvmes
for Edwin to become the pupil,__even inter-
mittently, of a man of original ideas and great powers
of mind, who in his way was a real genius. It was
Haydon's conviction that every student of art should
learn two things pre-eminently — namely, to draw from
the Antique, and to acquire practically a knowledge of
anatomy by actual dissection carried on for some time.
The painter, he argued, painted not only better, but
also more intelligently, who knew what underlay the
surface or the object which he was imitating, who
knew from his own handling the muscles which moulded
external shape and made it that and no other, and the
relation of part to part ; excluding, of course, what
concerned the surgeon alone. These, he held, were' the
principles upon which the Old Masters had been taught,
32
'The Cat's Paw" (p. 51).
Haydon's Services to Art
and upon which they worked. He believed he had
rediscovered them, and it was his aim, as has been
seen, to found a regular school where they might be
expounded and practised. Though Haydon's ambition
was not realised — ^for the authorities poured ridicule
and abuse upon the reformer, and even spared not to
oppress him in various ways — his private pupils, such
as those whom he named in his will, owed much to his
guidance, his erudition, and his devotion to Art, or, as
Lord Rosebery (in his short speech on "Biography"
delivered at Edinburgh on the isth of November, 1901)
preferred to call it, his " mania for Art." " If you do
not draw Nature, first," he said, "exactly as she is,
what basis, hereafter, will you have to make her as she
ought to be ? How can you refer to your drawings as
documents of what Nature is, in order to make her as
she ought to be ? How can you clear accident from
essence, if you do not first be sure what is accident and
what essence? Such were the drawings of Wilkie,
Edwin Landseer, Eastlake, Lance, Collins, and Mul-
ready ; but such were not the drawings of hundreds
of paper-geniuses, and where are they ? " It was in
accordance with these doctrines that he repeatedly
urged Landseer and other pupils to make the Elgin
Marbles their daily study. And it must be kept in
mind that it was largely in consequence of Haydon's
incessant advocacy that the British Governnnent were
ultimately induced to acquire those immortal remains.
"The last words I should wish to utter in this world,"
said this splendid zealot, ' ' till Art gave way to more
33 D
Sir Edwin Land seer
awful reflections, while my voice was articulate, and a
fibre of my vitality quivered — are Elgin Marbles ! Elgin
Marbles ! " This he said as bettering Reynolds, whose
last words in the Royal Academy were ' ' Michael
Angelo ! Michael Angelo ! "
Edwin entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1816,
This step proved that the fever of John Landseer's
resentment had passed the acute stage.
Perhaps the father had been mollified by the
■ ■ son's success in the previous year, for
not only was it a rare honour for a boy of
thirteen to have two pictures hung in the annual
Exhibition, but it was moreover a privilege which many
an older painter has striven after in vain. So far as
animals were concerned, the youth had little to learn
at these classes ; but with the human figure it was
otherwise, and he made profitable use of his time.
Henry Fuseli was then the Keeper. He taught the lad,
or rather, "wisely neglected" him — to employ C. R.
Leslie's suggestive phrase — and loved him for his
winning manners as well as for his gifts, speaking of
him as " My curly-headed dog-boy." We get a
glimpse of Edwin in another capacity at this period,
showing him to have been both attractive-looking and
glad to make himself useful. It was in this year (1816)
that Mr. Leslie painted his "Death of Rutland" in
illustration of the following passage from the Third
Part of King Henry VI. (Act L, Scene 3) : —
Rutland. O ! let me pray before I take my death —
To thee I pray : sweet Clifford, pity me !
34
Record as an Exhibitor
Clifford. Such pity as my rapier's point affords.
Rutland. I never did thee harm : why wilt thou slay me ?
Clifford. Thy father hath.
Rutland. But 'twas ere I was born.
Thou hast one son, for his sake pity me,
Lest, in revenge thereof, sith God is just,
He be as miserably slain as I.
Ah ! let me live in prison all my days ;
And when I give occasion of offence,
Then let me die, for now thou hast no cause.
Clifford. No cause ?
Thy father slew my father : therefore die.
\Stabs him.
Tom Taylor, who edited Leslie's Autobiography, says
that Landseer told him that " he sat for the pleading
boy, with a rope round his wrists." But there seems
no warrant in Shakespeare's text for the rope.
Henceforward Edwin Landseer was a constant, often
a generous exhibitor at the Royal Academy. From
1815, the year of his juvenile success, to
1873, the year of his death, he missed only ^ -i y
seven of the annual shows, those of 1816,
1841, 1852, 1855, 1862, 1863, and 1871. This
statement is based upon an analysis of Mr. Algernoji
Graves's catalogue, a labour of love which occupied
the compiler for many years, and which speaks volumes
for his research, judgment, and skill. Indeed, this
book in a fashion forms a most valuable tribute to the
illustrious painter who was the hero of it, chronicling,
as it does, a record of industry which gives the lie to
the malevolent slander that he was a habitual drunkard.
35
Sir Edwin Landseer
From first to last Sir Edwin exhibited no fewer than 171
pictures at the Royal Academy.
But though Landseer was loyal to the Royal Academy
he did not overlook the claims of other galleries. In 1805
rp, there had been founded the "British Institu-
„ ... , tion for Promoting the Fine Arts in the
T tifi ti United Kingdom," with the threefold object
of providing a means for the sale of the
works of British artists, of exciting rivalry amongst
younger men by the offer of money prizes or premiums,
and of forming a collection of examples of British art.
Later, a further feature was introduced, that of summer
or autumn Exhibitions of the works of deceased painters.
Under the patronage of King George the Third, rein-
forced by subscriptions to the amount of £'j,i€>^, the
Directors acquired the lease of the Shakespeare Gallery
in Pall Mall, and inaugurated their venture by an
Exhibition in 1806. Beaten by the keenness of modern
competition, the British Institution closed its doors in
1867, but during the sixty-two years of its existence
(saving a long spell in the 'forties and 'fifties) Landseer
contributed to it regularly, a few of his most famous
works first seeing the light in its rooms. According to
Mr. Algernon Graves, eighty-one of his pictures were
shown at this gallery. There seems no doubt but that
the British Institution was established with a view to
" waking up " the Royal Academy, the management of
which threatened to lapse into lethargy and favouritism.
But the influence of the Institution upon British Art
may be said to have been very evanescent, mainly in
36
Early Popularity
consequence of the Directors being dilettanti who dis-
dained the assistance of expert advice in the conduct of
their business, in the selection of pictures, and in the
award of their prizes. They are nevertheless entitled to
the credit of having established as early as 1813 the prin-
ciple of " One-Man Shows," now so generally favoured,
their first effort in this line being an Exhibition entirely
devoted to the works of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Other galleries to which Landseer, in the earlier years
of his career, sent pictures were the Society of Painters
in Oil and Water Colours, who then held .
their Exhibitions in a hall in Spring Gardens, ^ ^
a thoroughfare now more closely identified '' ^
with local self-government than with Art, as the head-
quarters first of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and
afterwards of the London County Council; and the
Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall
East. In at least one instance the same picture ("To-
Ho") was shown at three different galleries (Royal
Academy, 1820; British Institution, 1821; Society of
British Artists, 1826); and in a few cases at both the
Royal Academy and the British Institution, but the
Royal Academy invariably had the preference.
From the first Landseer's paintings sold readily, and
speedily became in demand. When a painter exhibits
regularly year after year in the leading galleries in
London, and sees his pictures bought up with avidity,
he has ceased to be an apprentice. So was it with
Edwin Landseer, whose onward course fell little short
of a triumphal progress.
37
CHAPTER IV.
A.R.A.
[1817-26.]
" Lion," an Alpine mastiff— Tracked to its home — The dogs of Saint
Bernard— " Fighting Dogs Getting Wind"— Equal to Snyders—
"White Horse in a Stable" — Lost for twenty-four years — "The
Intruder" — "The Braggart" — "Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a
Distressed Traveller " — Contemporary criticism — Log-rolling — A
father's protest — Backgrounds — "The Bull and the Frog" —
Dissects a lion — Leonine subjects — Drawings for John Landseer's
Essay on the Carnivora— " Rat-Catchers "— " Tapageur "— " To-
Ho " — " The Larder Invaded " — A prize picture — Haydon's
dishonoured cheque — " The Twa Dogs " — The Upper Ten —
Fertility and resource — " The Cat's Paw " — Landseer's own
house — " The Angler's Guard " — " Sancho Panza and Dapple " —
" Who's to have the Stick ? "— " The Dog-Fox "—First visit to
Scotland— Sir Walter Scott— Highland scenery— " The Widow"
— " Chevy Chace "— " The Dog and the Shadow "-Anecdotes-
Sydney Smith — Elected Associate of the Royal Academy.
From the beginning John Landseer had displayed un-
bounded faith in his son. He even engraved a few
of his pictures and piiblished prints and
"Lion " etchings after many more. To one of these,
"An Alpine Mastiff," exhibited at Spring
Gardens in 1817, though painted two years before, an
interesting little history attaches. The dog's name was
38
" Lion "
"Lion," and it belonged to Mrs. L. W. Boode, to whom
it had been presented in i8 14 by a Swiss gentleman who
received it directly from the famous hospice on Mont
Saint Bernard. Edwin saw it in the street one day
under the care of a man-servant, and with his usual
scent for a subject followed it to its home, where he
was allowed to draw it. " Lion" was afterwards con-
veyed to Leasowe Castle, near Birkenhead, where it
died in 1821. These facts were supplied to Mr. F. G.
Stephens by Sir Edward Cust, whose mother-in-law
was the dog's owner. As the mastiff when Edwin saw
it measured 6 feet 4 inches in length, and stood 2 feet
7 inches at the middle of the back, and was the largest
animal of its kind in England, it was not astonishing
that it captivated so ardent a lover of dogs as the
young painter had already become. Thomas Landseer
engraved the picture, the plate being endorsed as
"From a Drawing by his brother Edwin, aged 13."
The print also recites a few details about the breed,
which were probably drawn up by John Landseer, who
had an amiable weakness for this sort of literary work.
" Dogs of this kind," so the paragraph ran, " are kept
at the Convent of Saint Bernard for the purpose of dis-
covering and assisting those travellers who, in crossing
the mountain, may be overwhelmed and buried in the
drifted snow. They are sent forth in pairs, and when
they discover a sufferer, one of them returns to the
Convent for further assistance, whilst the other remains,
doing his utmost to extricate the traveller. These dogs
are also used as animals of burthen, and will carry a
39
Sir Edwin Landseer
cwt. of provision from Bauch^ to the Hospice, which is
i8 miles distant." It may be added that soon after its
arrival in England, "Lion" proved its prowess by
saving a woman from drowning. This Alpine subject
grew upon the painter, and he recurred to it in a few
years with dramatic effect.
In 1818, when he was under the influence of James
Ward, R.A., he achieved his first remarkable success by
his "Fighting Dogs Getting Wind," exhibited at the
II XT- J, • Society of Painters in Oil and Water Colours
W^^ ^S" jjj Spring Gardens. This work created a
* profound impression, even the critics of the
Press waxing vehement in their eulogy. One dog is
down and the other is striding victoriously over it, and
both are gasping for breath, but still full of the lust of
fight. Whilst the painting was yet on the easel, the
Annals of the Fine Arts (vol. iii., p. 162) declared that
" the head of one of them, the tongue, teeth, and inside
of the mouth is as finely painted as anything of Snyders ; "
and when it was finished and submitted to public
view the critic's notice was pithy — " as perfect a repre-
sentation of animal nature as ever was painted. The
interior of the dogs' mouths, their panting, their sub-
dued rage, their heated breaths, as finely represented as
the art is capable of" (vol. iii., p. 308). It is strange
to discover a note of jealousy in an unexpected quarter.
"Wilkie had rather a tendency," wrote Haydon, "to
consider public notice a monopoly of his own; he did
not quite like the repute of Davy, he rather under-
valued Kean, he fiercely denied at first the. genius of
40
.o
"White Horse in a Stable"
E. Landseer." "Fighting Dogs" was purchased by
Sir George Beaumont, an amateur painter and fashion-
able connoisseur, whose patronage of the young man
gave him increased vogue. It is a pity that so strong
a worlc has never been engraved. Mr. Algernon
Graves relates a. curious circumstance concerning
another picture painted in this year (1818), "White
Horse in a Stable." When this work, a commission
from the Right Hon. H. Pierrepoint, was finished it
was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and then
mysteriously disappeared. Twenty-four years later it
was found in a loft where it had been concealed by
the thief, a dishonest servant. It was now forwarded
to Mr. Pierrepoint with a letter explaining the facts,
Landseer adding that the white horse was the first
of that complexion he had ever painted. He had not
retouched it, he said, preferring to "leave my early
style unmingled with that of my old age." Asked what
was the price, Landseer replied, "Ten guineas," the
fee he would have received at the time he painted the
picture, which now belongs to the Duke of Wellington.
His successes were continued in 1819, especially with
"The Intruder" (British Institution) — a cat driven to
take refuge on a shelf on the sudden apparition of
"Brutus," Landseer's pet terrier — and " The Braggart "
— ^three dogs, said to typify England, Scot- ,^
land, and Ireland, one of which is indulging « . , ,
in characteristic bounce. But it was his „
fine picture of "Alpine Mastiffs Reani-
mating a Distressed Traveller," exhibited at the British
41
Sir Edwin Landseer
Institution in 1820, that strengthened his hold upon
the admiration of lovers of Art. Two dogs are re-
presented as endeavouring to restore a wayfarer over-
taken by a storm in the Alps. One ("Caesar," a son
of " Lion ") is licking the prostrate man with his rough
tongue, the other ("Lion") is lifting its head, howling
for help, and both are pawing away the snow. In the
background some monks are hastening to render aid.
Of this moving picture the Annals of the Fine Arts
(vol. v., p. 153) wrote that " Snyders never painted
better than the heads of these dogs, could not have
painted the dying traveller near so well, and never gave
half the historical interest and elevation to any of his
pictures, unassisted by Rubens, as this possesses." In
the previous volume of this magazine the critic had
committed himself to some very emphatic prognosti-
cation which is worth repeating. Landseer's last
pictures in the British Institution — those of 1819 — ^he
maintained: — "placed him at once as the first animal
. „ painter of the day; he is not to be spoiled
"by such merited praise; he will do better
_, things than he has done, but what he has
done is better than what any other person
can do; he sees deeper into Nature than any of his
pictures have hitherto displayed ; he must improve,
because he never will be able to equal his ideas."
It was glowing praise like this which led John Land-
seer to protest — not unamiably and indeed, reading
between the lines, really greatly delighted ("an' what
for no?") by the writer's obvious sincerity — that Mr.
42
Log-rolling
Elmes made too frequent mention of his sons in his
book. " Is there not a little too much about my sons
in it? I am afraid there is, considering they are but
youthful students: but let that pass" (v. 107). "We
differ from Mr. Landseer," retorted the Editor. "We
have not mentioned them oftener than they deserved,
and we shall continue to notice them as long as we
think they merit it" (v. 200). But this ingenuous
threat soon lost whatever terror it had, even for the
older man, for the Annals, alas ! ceased to appear with
the issue of the following number.
After he had acquired by patient and persevering
study a thorough knowledge of animal life, Landseer
turned his attention to accessories. Many of his back-
grounds had hitherto been more or less conventional
and, especially in the case of several of his sketches,
weak. Of this he was himself quite conscious, and it is
recorded that, in 1822, he invoked the help of Patrick
Nasmyth, the accomplished landscape-painter, to put in
the background of his " The Bull and the Frog," and
that he begged leave to postpone the painting in of the
background of "Lion," the Alpine mastiff, until after his
first visit to Scotland in 1824. Collaboration on the
part of artists and engravers of repute is by no means
rare — Sir Augustus W. Callcott, R.A., put in the land-
scape to Landseer's "Harvest in the Highlands,"
exhibited in 1833, and David Roberts, R.A., the arch
and church tower in "Geneva," exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1851, — but it was altogether of good
omen that Edwin recognised thus early his temporary
43
Sir Edwin Landseer
limitations, and laboured diligently and successfully to
overcome them. Nevertheless, want of nerve, of
I'audace, could not be laid to his charge, for by sheer
force of imagination he was enabled to supply appro-
priate, if theatrical, scenery for his great picture
of the "Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed
Traveller," although, as Mr. Monkhouse reminds us,
he had not yet seen a mountain either in Switzerland
or elsewhere — always excepting Primrose Hill.
Moreover, whilst Landseer's knowledge of the animals
of everyday life was now intimate and complete, he had
To thp "°* forgotten his early loves in the heroic
J . line. He and his friend, Thomas Christmas,
at intervals still sketched and painted the
lions in the Tower and at Exeter 'Change, and on the
death of a noble brute at the latter menagerie, Mr.
Cross presented them with the carcass, which they
removed to their studio. The skin was afterwards
preserved and stuffed. They dissected the body, and
then the skeleton was articulated and set up. This
accounts for the number of leonine subjects that
occupied his canvases about this period. The "Lion
Enjoying his Repast" and " Lion Disturbed at his Re-
past" (both of 1820, and exhibited at the British Institu-
tion a year later), and the "Prowling Lion" and "Study
of a Lion " (both of 1822, and the former shown at
the Royal Academy), all point to a lingering fascination
for the reputed King of Beasts — a master passion that
remained with him, despite intervals of dormancy, to
the very last. This was further borne out by the five
44
The Carnivora
drawings which he contributed in illustration of his
father's essay on the Carnivora, written by way of text
for a volume of ' ' Twenty[-one] Engravings of Lions,
Tigers, Panthers, and Leopards," the plates in which were
all engraved by Thomas Landseer. The chief pictures
which Edwin made for this book were the Title-page,
showing a couchant lion, which in its singular nobility
of aspect anticipates the majestic creatures at the base
of the Nelson Pillar, sovereignty of the animal world
being suggested by the sceptre resting beneath its right
paw; "Contending Group," representing a mad fight
between a lion, leopard, and tiger — a poor fawn, the
innocent occasion of the contest, lying crushed below
the struggling, seething mass, — in which the rage of the
royal beast is terrible to behold; and "Lioness and
Bitch." By this last hangs a tale. A cub was found
on the West African strand by some sailors, who con-
veyed her to their ship, aboard which she was suckled
and reared by a bitch. When the vessel reached
London the interesting couple were deposited in Cross's
menagerie. Long after the lioness (which had been
christened "Charlotte") had ceased to be nursed, she
still entertained the warmest affection for her foster-
mother, fondling and licking her continually. How
many folk know that ^his familiar anecdote owes its
vitality to Landseer's picture from life ?
As if to make amends for his brief desertion of them,
he returned in 1821 to his canine friends. A remarkably
vivid "Rat Catchers" introduces us to three of his
pets, "Brutus," "Vixen," and "Boxer." The scene is
4S
Sir Edwin Landseer
laid in a barn. A few rats have already received their
quietus, another is hopelessly trapped, and though pro-
tected for the nonce from the attentions of the terriers,
is a terrified spectator of the eager and quivering dogs.
"Tapageur," a beautifully-painted poodle of a rather
rare breed, and "To-Ho," a pair of pointers at work in
a field, the dogs instinct with life, belong, the former to
this year, the latter to 1820, when it was shown at the
Royal Academy.
Although Landseer's merits had now been placed
beyond question, substantial recognition awaited his
" Thp "Larder Invaded," which was exhibited at
J- T the British Institution in 1822, and for which
Invaded" *^® original sketch, according to Mr. Alger-
non Graves, was made on a schoolboy's
slate. A cat has found its way into a room liberally
stocked with every variety of victual. Pussy, ignoring
the game and hares and other dainty fare, has fastened
upon a rabbit, but is suddenly disturbed by the entrance
of a dog. The larder has been invaded, and he has
come to learn the reason why. The two animals scru-
tinise each other closely, the cat with a sense of dread
which no doubt will prove to have been well founded.
This picture, painted with exquisite finish, won not only
marked popular applause, but also secured a premium
of ;^i5o from the Directors of the Institution, awarded
in discharge of one of their primary duties. It may, to
some degree, though not wholly, be regarded as the
first distinguished picture in the line which Landseer
made peculiarly his own: not altogether, because
46
" The Twa Dogs "
something must be said in this respect for the
"Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveller."
As the painter was yet an infant in the legal eye,
the cheque for the amount of his prize was sent to
his father. A few days later, by one of those coinci-
dences which are so common in the annals of im-
pecuniosity, Haydon called upon John Landseer and
pitched a doleful yarn of temporary distress, concluding
by reminding his friend that Edwin could not use the
money for a certain time, and asking for the loan of half
the sum. Mr. and Mrs. Landseer held Haydon in
sincere respect, notwithstanding his importunities, and
John Landseer consequently agreed to advance jQ'j^,
Haydon handing him a post-dated cheque for that
amount. Many years later, at Landseer's table in St.
John's Wood, talk turned upon poor Haydon and the
incident was recalled. "Jessie," cried Edwin, "bring
me Haydon's dishonoured cheque."
At the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensing-
ton there may be seen another favourite picture of this
year, " The Twa Dogs," which the British ..j'^ yvy-
nation owes to the munificence of Mr. Sheep- j^ „
shanks. Though the drawing of the New-
foundland (Mr. Gosling's dog "Neptune") does not
strike me as altogether satisfactory, a happier illustra-
tion of Burns's poem could not be desired than this
bright and bonnie composition. The poet's word-picture
made strong appeal to the painter : —
" The first I'll name, they ca'd him Caesar,
Was keepit for his Honour's pleasure :
47
Sir Edwin Landseer
His hair, his size, his mouth, his lugs,
Show'd he was nane o' Scotland's dogs ;
But whalpit some place far abroad,
Whare 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 fient a pride' — nae pride had he ;
But wad hae spent an hour caressin',
Ev'n wi' a tinlder-gips/s messan.'
The tither was a ploughman's collie,
A rhyming, ranting, roving billie,'
Wha for his friend and comrade had him.
An' in his freaks had Luath ca'd him,
After some dog in Highland sang,*
Was made lang syne — Lord knows how lang.
He was a gash" an' faithfu' tyke,
As ever lap a sheugh" or dyke.
His honest, sonsie, baws'nt' face,
Aye gat him friends in ilka place ;
His breast was white, his tousie back
Weel clad wi' coat o' glossy black :
His gaucie'tail, wi' upward curl,
Hung owre his hurdles" wi' a swirl."
By-and-by these two fine fellows fell a-talking, but for
their "lang digression" the delicious poem itself must
be consulted. It is a pity that Landseer did not go to
Burns oftener for subjects, for they were both like-
natured in their great love for animals.
' The devil a bit o£ ^ Mongrel. ' Fellow. * Ossian's. ' Sagacious.
Furrow. ' Brindled. * Briskly wagging. ^ Hind quarters.
48
Enters Society
There is in the Tate Gallery a tiny picture prosaically
called " Study of a Donkey and Foal," which is, how-
ever, the "Mischief in Full Play" (British Institution,
1823) of Mr. Algernon Graves's catalogue. It repre-
sents a country lad mounted on the back of a hobbled
donkey, which the boy is maliciously beating with a
stick to induce it "to go" in spite of its impediment,
a piece of mischief in which he is cordially assisted
by a terrier viciously yelping at the ass's heels. The
painting has all the qualities of a Dutch master, and
is mentioned here thus particularly lest, owing to
its small size, it be overlooked. It belonged latterly
to Mr. H. Vaughan, who bequeathed it to the British
nation.
About this period Landseer made his entrie into the
fashionable world. Starting on a purely professional
footing, his acquaintance with many of the
noblest-families in the land soon ripened into High Life
friendship. He came, he saw, he conquered.
In 1823 appeared his portrait of " Georgiana, Duchess
of Bedford," an accomplished woman whom he after-
wards taught to etch. He was on intimate terms with
the Russells from this time forward, being often an
honoured guest at Woburn Abbey, where he painted
nearly every member of the family, usually introducing
a horse, or pony, or dog, or deer into the composition,
the animal forming in reality the chief charm of the
picture. When lacking the advantage of such acces-
sories, however, his portraits of noble dames, though
pretty pictures enough in their way, were apt to verge
49 E
Sir Edwin Landseer
on the theatrical, and too frequently revealed serious
defects in drawing.
Meanwhile he was now able to reap in full the benefits
of the long, patient, and thorough apprenticeship which
TT- he had served to his Art. His facility and
jj. .J.. resourcefulness could only have come from
severe training and ample knowledge. There
have been painters, such as Rubens in the past and
Dor6 in the present, who produced pictures by the
dozen or the yard, so to say, but the bulk of the work
was done by students. Their industry and fluency were
therefore in no sense remarkable. But Landseer had
no pupils (for this purpose), and with the exception of
the few instances in which, from creditable motives, he
obtained assistance in the matter of backgrounds, or,
from failing sight late in life, procured help in minute
details, he painted and drew every inch of the hundreds
of pictures and sketches which proceeded from his
hand. His mastery was obtained in the only way in
which it can be obtained — by devotion, drudgery, if you
like, intelligence, and love for his art ; and with it came
ease and rapidity and sureness of touch. Up to the
'fifties anyhow, his fertility was almost unrivalled. It
had its drawbacks no doubt, for superior people who
knew nothing of the apprenticeship, or made no allow-
ance for all that it involved, shook their wise heads and
talked of scene-painting. But whilst he was in the
making, his craftsmanship was so painstaking that it
might have satisfied Ruskin himself.
His famous "Cat's Paw," exhibited at the British
SO
His Drawings of Pussy-
institution in 1824, may be cited as a case in point. A
monkey having laid violent hands upon a cat, uses
one of the creature's paws to hook off some ~,
... < ... • J Ag
pipmg hot chestnuts which are roastmg on •< r f
the top of a stove. The disordered state of p „
the ironing-room shows that the outrage
has not been quietly submitted to. You can almost
hear the agonising yells of the victim, and a touch of
grim humour is added by the fatuous protest of the
cat's two kittens, which view the scene from a clothes'-
basket. The cruel cunning of the monkey's face atxd his
business-like method are admirably rendered. The cat
in this picture and in the "Larder Invaded" are the
best cats Landseer ever painted. It is curious that no
animal is so difficult to draw as the cat. Mr. W. J.
Broderip, F.R.S., the London magistrate who wrote so
sympathetically on many branches of zoology, though
sharing this opinion, expressly excepts Landseer; but
in this particular we part company. Landseer either
shirked it or did not care for the domesticated variety
owing to his allegiance to Felis leo; but it is certain that
it figures in few of his important works. However, the
" Cat's Paw " is full of splendid drawing. Mr. Mayer,
the dealer, purchased the picture for ;^ioo; but he was
content with a modest profit, for he sold it in a few
days to the Earl of Essex for ;^i20. Mayer sized up
Landseer very shrewdly, believing it would be to his
advantage to stand well with a young 'man who had
begun early to climb the ladder of Fame and meant
reaching the top. So he ventured to give the artist
SI
Sir Edwin Landseer
some advice. Landseer still lived with his father, but
had a studio in Upper Conway Street, afterwards
Southampton Street, Fitzroy Square, which seems to
have been anything but a comfortable place. At any
rate Mayer thought so, for he asked Landseer why he
stayed in a room that had not a table, or a carpet, or
even decent chairs. "Why not have a place," urged
the Tempter, "where you can keep a dog or two, and
have a garden, and so on ? " It was an adroit hint, and
. rr in due course Landseer acted upon it. He
-. , . found a small house with garden, part of the
then Red Hand Farm, on the west side of
Regent's Park, close to where Lord's Cricket Ground
now accommodates the M.C.C. The barn, soon con-
verted into a studio, eventually became by successive
additions the mansion (No. i St. John's Wood Road)
where the painter lived for forty-eight years, and where
Mr. H. W. B. Davis, R.A., the landscape-painter,
afterwards resided. Landseer greatly improved the
property. It was largely built to his own designs, and
when it was demolished in 1894 to provide room,
amongst other things, for a pile of flats, it attracted
the curio-hunters. The panels of one door bore a
pictorial commemoration of Queen Victoria's visit to
her favourite painter in 1863, and the rustic seats in the
shrubbery were adorned with his initials, " E. L. 1857,"
and "Edwin L.," cut truly and deeply, with a force
that a schoolboy would admire. The flitting from the
paternal roof involved no rupture of his relations with
his father, for whom he cherished a tender affection as
53
" Lion "
long as the old man lived. John Landseer, indeed, was
his man of affairs, and, as Mr. F. G. Stephens concisely
puts it, "settled the prices of his pictures, received the
money, and treated Edwin in his twenty-second year as
he had done when he was twelve years old."
Two of the pictures which Mr. Sheepshanks presented
to the nation belong to 1824. These were "The
Angler's Guard" (exhibited at the British Institution)
and " Sancho Panza and Dapple," both small and
painted with almost miniature-like finish. The former
represents a mastiff and greyhound keeping watch over
the impedimenta of a disciple of Izaak Walton. The
dogs are less happy than Landseer's wont, being stiff
and formal, and neither of them well observed. Mr.
Algernon Graves tells an amusing story of Mr. W. H.
de Merle's "Lion" (painted in this year »also), a
magnificent Newfoundland, splendidly rendered, and
now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, by the grace
of his then owner's widow. Landseer once wished to
see the dog excited and, as luck would have it, a
trapped mouse was close by. It was set free from its
cage, "Lion" gave chase, and suddenly the mouse
vanished. It had taken refuge in the dog's great
cheeks. When his lips were opened the mouse popped
out and escaped. Though "Lion" was usually good-
natured, he knew how to resent insult. A bargee once
began prodding him with the oar as he walked by a
canal side ; instantly " Lion " seized the oar and jerked
the man into the water. Another excellent picture of
this fruitful year was "Who's to have the Stick?"
53
Sir Edwin Landseer
"Brutus " and another dog have grasped the staff and are
struggling, so far in amiable rivalry, for its possession.
Indefatigable Mr, Graves has a note of still another
1824 picture, which illustrates how heedless to a fault
was Landseer of many of his drawings. This one
represented a singular hybrid, a " Cross of a Dog and
Fox. " In answer to a friend's question, asked long
after this period, as to the nature of the animal,
Landseer said, "They call it a dog-fox, I painted it
many years ago. It was exactly like him." Here he
flung the picture through the open window into the
garden, adding, " You may have it if you will take the
trouble to fetch it." This was easily done, as the
picture had lodged in a tree.
It is no exaggeration to describe the year 1824 as
the turning-point in Landseer's career. C. R. Leslie
J-, . . rp ■ having occasion to visit Abbotsford in order
.J, to paint a portrait of Sir Walter Scott for
Mr. Ticknor, the publisher, of Boston,
Massachusetts, prevailed upon Landseer to accompany
him. They sailed from London to Leith, but when they
arrived in Edinburgh Leslie found that the Wizard
would not be at home for a few days. So, reinforced
by G. S. Newton, R.A., the friends set out for a trip in
the Highlands, by way of Glasgow. Thence the route
lay by Loch Lomond and Loch Katrine. To-day every
foot of the ground is known, but then it was still terra
incognita, full of romance and loveliness. The " Lady
of the Lake " was only fourteen years old. The beauty
remains, but the glamour has gone for ever. How
54
First Highland Trip
could it be otherwise when the Silver Strand had to
be drowned and Ellen's Isle shorn of its fair
proportions by the damming up of the lake, so that the
canny folk of Glasgow might have an adequate water-
supply for all time ? But in these matters salus populi
is the only safe, as it must also be the final rule. From
the Trossachs, the travellers struck across the hills and
down the braes of Balquhidder to Loch Earn, bound for
an athletic meeting. They were rowed down the lake
by Highland boatmen who regaled them the while
literally with fairy stories. As they drew near St.
Fillans they heard the skirl of the bagpipes, which
never sound finer than on loch or ben. Then they
witnessed a real Gaelic gathering, where men danced,
ran, leaped, threw the hammer, tilted at the ring,
putted the stone, tossed the caber, and piped. Such
gatherings were once common throughout Scotland,
but save the famous Northern Meeting at Inverness,
the Braemar Gathering, and the Strathallan Games,
they have either died out or have dwindled into "side
shows " on local fair days. To Landseer and his merry
men they proved a revelation and the tour brought a
new world within his ken, haunted by stags and
stalwart Highlanders whose strange lingo seemed to
suit the wild hills, and whose illicit whisky smacked of
the heather and peat reek. Later in the year he spent
a week at Abbotsford, where, as Leslie had predicted,
he made himself very popular with the master and
mistress of the mansion by sketching their doggies, and
where, under the Chief's guidance, he explored the
Sir Edwin Landseer
picturesque dales of the Tweed, when he was not
trying for a salmon or dandering about with the
keepers. For ever afterwards Landseer's heart was in
the Highlands a-chasing or a-sketching the deer. The
glorious scenery, too, made a deep and lasting
impression. His feeling for Highland landscape was
quite remarkable, and he seemed to treat even the
climate with brotherly regard.
Although the influence of these Scottish holidays told
at once, he never abandoned the type of subject with
^^ which his name is popularly associated.
3T ., "The Widow" (exhibited at the Royal
Academy, 1825) was unusually successful.
A handsome drake has fallen dead at the feet of his
mate, a comely white duck, who lifts up her voice and
weeps. Thin was the partition which divided such a
theme from farce — bearing in mind the aspect of the
birds — but, greatly daring, Landseer has imparted to
it a proper touch of pathos, and made a beautiful
picture of it.
His journeys across the Border had secured him the
friendship of the Earl of Tankervill^, and a visit to
, Chillingham Castle, within hail of the scene
■^ of many of the bloody frays between the
^ doughty Douglas and the fiery Percy,
suggested the subject of " Chevy Chace." He did
not illustrate the battle of the ancient ballad which
stirred the heart of Sir Philip Sidney like the sound
of a trumpet, but the driving of the deer which precipi-
tated the encounter. It was an ambitious picture,
56
^HhRIP''' ^ J^^l
K^ l^^^^^^H
Mi
^^k-^^j&HbS 't
14
H
^B|^^^H«
flHg"
Jh
I^M
gjn
B^^f
>ji^^8m
WL 11
I^hI
^^^K^s
W' ^''^^9^1
1
^^^f^'^^i
II
^l^^H
1
" Is thy Servant a Dog ? "
painted for the Duke of Bedford, and exhibited at
the Royal Academy in 1826, and now at Woburn Abbey,
and was not wholly successful. The failure, however,
went no farther than might have been expected of an
artist who should attempt a historical painting on a
large scale without adequate pireliminary training in
this mode, for it contained many excellent passages.
More in his own line was the small picture "The Dog
and the Shadow" (British Institution, 1826), which
hangs on the walls of the Victoria and Albert Museum
by the generosity of Mr. Sheepshanks. It is a render-
ing of the old fable, and shows the dog, with a piece of
stolen meat in his mouth, standing on a tree that spans
a stream and gazing at his reflection in the water.
To this date belongs the capital anecdote which has
gone the rounds for many a year, and which appears to
justify the axiom of a thing being too good
to be true. In answer to Lady. Holland's -^ .:;
urging of him to sit to Landseer for his
portrait, Sydney Smith is alleged to have said, "Is
thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?"
Leslie always declared the story to be ben trovato, and
Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., on the authority of Landseer
himself, asserts its apocryphal character. Nevertheless
it seems to have a genuine ring ; it is the sort of reply
that the witty Canon was quite capable of making.
But there was another story, though of a later year.
At a Court Ball at which the King of Portugal and
Landseer were present, his Majesty expressed a wish
to be introduced to the illustrious painter.
57
Sir Edwin Landseer
"Oh! Mr. Landseer," said the King in a foreigner's
English, " I am delighted to make your acquaintance —
I am so fond of beasts."
For my part I see no reason why both anecdotes
should not be true. Leslie says that Sydney Smith,
happening to meet Landseer shortly after the story
found its way into print, asked, " Have you seen our
little joke in the papers ? "
"Are you disposed to acknowledge it?" retorted the
painter, Scotick.
" /have no objection," quoth the Churchman.
These two brilliant men always indulged in playful
badinage of each other, Sydney with tongue and Edwin
with pen. Indeed, Landseer's sketches of the Canon in
the Redleaf Scribblers' Book are so clever as to prove
that his faculty of caricature was of no mean order.
Landseer, with ^'Mtwi-sympathy, once remarked to the
Reverend Sydney Smith, " With your love of humour,
it must be a great act of self-denial to abstain from the
theatres."
"The managers are very polite," was the answer in
tones of appropriate resignation. "They send me free
admissions, which I can't use, and, in return, I send
them free admissions to St. Paul's." Leslie gives us to
understand that this colloquy is historical. It is odd
that an eminent Dean once sent a pass to me on the
occasion of his preaching "below the dome." I pre-
ferred to keep the document, as it struck me there was
something quaint about the notion, and take my chance
with the general public.
58
Elected Associate
Landseer was elected an Associate of the Royal
Academy in 1826, at the earliest age (24) at which it
is possible for an artist to receive this honour.
Few men have won this signal mark of A.R.A.
Academic favour. Turner, Lawrence, and
Millais have been amongst the painters thus dis-
tinguished. No doubt Mr. F. G. Stephens is right
when he surmises that the Council advanced him on
the score of pronounced merit, proved for several years,
rather than in recognition of the varied qualities of his
" Chevy Chace." They had, so to say, been lying in wait
for him, and it must be counted to them for righteous-
ness that they seized the very first opportunity open to
them to place the sign and seal of august approval upon
one who had already been designated for promotion by
the public voice, and who was, moreover, the son of
John Landseer.
59
CHAPTER V.
R.A.
[1827-31.]
Landseer's hobbies — Deer-stalking — In the social circle — Nodes
Ambrosiana — Simplicity of a child — His men of affairs — A lavish
giver — Aye sketching — Cheque to bearer — "The Deerstalkers'
Return" — His broader manner — "All that Remains of the Glory
of William Smith" — John Pye's story — "The Monkey who has
seen the World " — Illustrations for books and magazines — " High
Life"— "Low Life"— "The Fireside Party"- "The Death of
the Stag in Glen Tilt "—Defects of its qualities—" The Highland
Whisky Still"— " Highland Music "—Elected R. A.— Diploma
pictures—" The Faithful Hound."
Landseer had few interests outside of Art. Public life
never appealed to him. When he got to know the
^ ,, Scottish Highlands intimately, as he soon
^ , , did, he became an enthusiastic sportsman,
and in the social circle confessedly he shone.
Yet even these forms of recreation were curiously domi-
nated by his absorbing devotion to his craft. The eye
of the deer-stalker did not dull the eye of the artist, and
indeed often when he went out to shoot he remained to
sketch, to the wonderment and sometimes the wrath of
the gillies, who thought him daft till they grew familiar
with the man and his ways. His companions on hill
60
Amongst Bohemians
and moor were the dukes and earls who hunted none
the less keenly for being expert critics and perfervid
worshippers of Art. And the chief victims of his mirth-
provoking joviality were either his fellow-craftsmen or
those great patron-friends of his — commoners all — by
whose splendid generosity the British public galleries
have been enriched with the masterpieces of painter and
sculptor.
Before the soir6e replaced it, the close of the annual
exhibition of pictures in Trafalgar Square used to be
celebrated by Academicians and Associates jJnrtp
dining together enfamille, so to say. Those . ■,
banquets were happy informal gatherings — .
nodes ccenceque deorum — to which artists
beyond the pale, whose works had been shown on
the walls during the season, were bidden welcome, on
the introduction of a friend and the payment of a
guinea. Jest, and song, and story were the order of
the night, and the brethren of the brush "let them-
selves go," as only artists can when the spirit moves
them. On such occasions Landseer was supreme, and
added to the general enjoyment by the evident gusto of
his efforts to promote hilarity and make every one feel
at home. Youth and manhood were his only periods of
unclouded happiness. Mr. Frith avows that he warbled
delightfully, and was one of the best story-tellers he
ever knew: as to which the painter of " Ramsgate
Sands" has preserved the following quaint anecdote that
Edwin used to tell of NoUekens, the sculptor, to whom
the Prince Regent (afterwards George IV.) was sitting
6i
Sir Edwin Lands eer
for his bust in marble. A little dust having found its
way from the chisel on to the Prince's coat-collar,
Nollekens blew it off, saying the while : —
" How's your father ? "
The nature of Farmer George's occasional illness is
well known.
" Thank you, Mr. Nollekens," answered the Prince,
"he is much better."
" Ah ! that's all right ! " remarked the sculptor. " It
would be a sad thing if he was to die, for we shall
never have another King like him."
"Thank you," said the Prince.
" Ah, sir, you may depend upon that."
This would have suited Du Maurier's series of
"Things one might have expressed otherwise."
Another characteristic witnessed to a simple-minded-
ness that was surely lovable. In money matters, and
Unbusi- '° ^^''* ^° business affairs generally, he was
ness-lihe ^^ merest child. His father discovered this
weakness early and took charge of all these
things for many years, and when increasing age com-
pelled John Landseer to resign his self-imposed trust,
the druggist Jacob Bell, the founder of the Pharma-
ceutical Society, who was a Victorian Maecenas if ever
there was one, and finally Thomas Hyde Hills, under-
took the duty out of pure friendship.
Edwin Landseer was lavish to a fault in the bestowal
of his sketches. " You must have given away hundreds
of pounds, Landseer," was once the gentle remon-
strance of Frederick Goodall, R.A. But the painter
62
Superb Sketches
only smiled and said nothing — though possibly thinking
a lot. If he wrote a letter, as likely as not he would
introduce a sketch before he reached the sig- . ^ //g„g„
nature. If he presented a boo^^ to a lady, the , ^i^ , ,
inscription would in all probability be adorned
with a charming little drawing of a Skye terrier. I
have seen a cheque for ;^8o, drawn upon Messrs.
Gosling & Sharp, of 19 Fleet Street, in his hand-
writing, in which, instead of the word " bearer," there
appears a beautiful sketch of a horse, such a capital like-
ness withal, that I was told that if the lady who rode the
hack had presented the cheque it would almost certainly
have been honoured. It seemed as if his fingers could
not rest idle; as if he suffered from some cacoethes
delineandi. All the same, it was a fine failing, by which
he benefited after a fashion, for he acquired an almost
unrivalled knack of sketching. The Redleaf Scribblers'
Book contains enough sketches by Landseer to have
gained for him a reputation in ' this manner alone.
There is a sketch in these treasure-volumes of a man
looking at the wares exposed for sale outside of a
poulterer's shop, the rows of strung-up geese being
indicated by a few cunning pen-strokes, that is perfect
as an example of adequate effect obtained by the
simplest of means. The two hurried studies of Turner,
surreptitiously observed whilst in the Royal Academy
on Touching-day and painted on his palette, from
which impressions were skilfully transferred on white
blotting-paper, and the y««ji-caricature of Paganini are
marvels of adroit drawing.
63
Sir Edwin Landseer
One of the first conspicuous fruits of Landseer's
earliest jaunts to Scotland was "The Deerstalkers'
,, j^ Return," exhibited at the Royal Academy in
, ,, , 1827. The hunters have had a fairly suc-
r> , „ cessful expedition, the spoils of the chase
being a couple of deer borne homewards on
the backs of a white and a black pony. At the head of
one of the horses march the young chief and a hench-
man, accompanied by two dogs. This was the first
important picture in which the artist showed signs of
breaking away from his more youthful manner. It is
painted in the freer and larger style employed so suc-
cessfully in his later works, a fluency that was rendered
possible, as has already been argued, by the years of
rigorous application during which he had been patiently
and with ample knowledge accumulating the reserve of
power, ease, and dexterity which were now and ever
afterwards to stand him in such good stead.
Two other pictures of a popular order belong to the
same year. John Pye, the engraver, collaborated with
"WW '^'™ '"^ ^^ production of one, which bore
^ .,, „ the mysterious title of "All that Remains of
^^ the Glory of William Smith." Pye's plate
(engraved in 1836) contains a legend, which probably
is his handiwork also, telling the story in such quaint
phrases as to be worth reproducing : — ' ' William Smith,
being possessed of combativeness and animated by a
love of glory, enlisted in the loist regiment of Foot.
At the battle of Waterloo, on the i8th of June follow-
ing, a cannon ball carried oif one of his legs; thus
64
An Old Soldier
commenced and terminated William's military career.
As he lay wounded on the field of battle, the dog here
represented, blind with one eye, and having also a leg
shattered apparently by a musket shot, came and sat
beside him as 'twere for sympathy. The dog became
William's prisoner, and when a grateful country re-
warded William's services by a pension and a wooden
leg, he stumped about accompanied by the dog, his
friend and companion. On the 15th December, 1834,
William died. His name never having been recorded
in an extraordinary Gazette, this public monument,
representing the dog at a moment when he was ill and
reclining against the mattress on which his master died,
is erected to his memory by Edwin Landseer and John
Pye." Much more mordant sarcasm than this may be
justly indulged in about too many old soldiers, whose
wounds are salved by a paltry pension, and for whom
the workhouse is often the only asylum ; but we cannot
help thinking that it was in a measure lucky for William
Smith that his pitiable plight had awakened the sym-
pathy of the one-eyed tyke ; for the story of the cur's
fidelity was bound to touch the heart of one who could
never listen unmoved to any tale of canine loyalty and
love. This interesting picture is now in the collection
of Lord Cheylesmore.
In the case of the second picture the subject might
almost have been borrowed directly from Thomas Land-
seer's Monkey-ana, for it represents "The Travelled
Monkey," or perhaps more suitably, "The Monkey
who has seen the World" (Royal Academy, 182^).
65 F
Sir Edwin Landseer
A monkey who had left his home to make the grand
tour has returned to his relatives in the forest — but
"T 11 d^°^ changed! Dressed to the nines, in
yj, , „ cocked-hat, long square-cut coat, breeches,
stockings, and buckled shoon; with powdered
wig and face with beauty-spot, dangling a cane and
sporting an eye-glass, he looks a simian Sir Benjamin
Backbite. The supercilious beau cuts a dash ; most of
his humble mates are speechless with admiration and
envy, but a few of the baser sort jabber together, heed-
less of the dazzling vision, whilst one has contrived to
pick his pocket of the snufF-box, the contents of which
it is busy sampling. It is an excellent piece of work-
manship, though obviously the subject is of the casual
order.
Though it is true that the busiest man has most time,
Landseer really had little leisure for illustrating books
j7, . or periodicals. Early in his career some of
.. his drawings were engraved as plates for
magazines devoted to sport, and he also
contributed a few pictures to the Keepsake and one or
two others of the Annuals then fashionable. He seldom
drew on the wood, one of the rare exceptions being the
drawing of "A Black Sheep" which he made for the
fourth number of the Comhill Magasine (i860), out of
personal regard for Thackeray, in illustration of the
novelist's story of " Lovell the Widower." At the
period at which we have arrived (1828) — no doubt at the
instance of Sir Walter Scott on the one hand, and of
Samuel Rogers on the other — he prepared several
66
"High Life" and "Low Life"
admirable illustrations (but not all in this year) for
the Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels (which
Messrs. A. & C. Black are still wise enough to use),
and for the banker-poet's " Italy," upon the adornment
of which the wealthy amateur contemplated spending a
small fortune, and which did actually cost him ;^io,ooo.
The picture of "The Falconer" (1829), which was
engraved for the Amulet, is' interesting as being a
portrait of himself.
Some of the paintings of 1829 are especially familiar.
Two of them, thanks to Mr. Robert Vernon, are public
property— " High Life" and "Low Life."
These are studies of dogs, one a well-
mannered staghound (alleged by certain ,•' "
persons, but on insufficient grounds, to be Sir Walter
Scott's "Maida") accustomed to move only in the most
polite society, the other a butcher's bull-dog as plebeian
as his surroundings can make him. Both were remark-
ably fine pictures. That the latter was exceptionally
successful may be gathered from the moralising of the
reluctant Ruskin. In Modem Painters (Part IX.,
chap, vii.) it is written, "Cunning signifies especially a
habit or gift of over-reaching, accompanied with enjoy-
ment and a sense of superiority. It is associated with
small and dull conceit, and with an absolute want of
sympathy or affection. Its essential connection with
vulgarity may be at once exemplified by the expression
of the butcher's dog in Landseer's 'Low Life.'" A
third picture, which the British nation owes to the
enlightened zeal of Mr. Sheepshanks, was also a
67
Sir Edwin Landseer
doggy subject. This is the "Fireside Party," and
represents the "Pepper" and "Mustard" terriers of
honest Dandie Dinmont, immortalised in that extra-
ordinary tour de force, Guy Mannering. By-the-bye,
Mr. F. G. Stephens, following a pen-slip in Mr.
Richard Redgrave's original catalogue of the Sheep-
shanks gift, refers these dogs to The Antiquary, an
error into which The Times, relying upon Mr.
Stephens, was also betrayed in its obituary notice
of the painter.
Of the Scottish pictures of this year, one was an
important portrait composition called "The Death of
the Stag in Glen Tilt," and another a homelier group, the
"Highland Whisky Still." In the former the central
figure is the Duke of AthoU, and around him are posed
his son and three keepers. The dead stag and several
dogs, and the beautiful scenery of the wild glen, com-
plete the picture. Excellent as was the subject, and
well suited to the artist, the picture has the defects
of its conditions. Stir and bustle that would animate
such a scene have been sacrificed, almost unavoidably,
to portraiture, which has produced an aspect of for-
mality and subservience. Unlike Bowls and Curling,
two Scottish pastimes in which rank is obliterated for
the nonce, and only skill, whether that of peer or
peasant, counts. Stalking is pursued in circumstances
which render it impossible for the gillie to forget
that he is a servant. The grouping in such a portrait
composition as this must therefore be stiff and conven-
tional, though wherever Landseer had a chance of
68
"Highland Whisky Still"
putting forth his powers he did not hesitate to seize it.
No limitations were imposed by the simple annals of
the illicit distiller. Satisfied that Landseer was no
gauger come to haul him up for defrauding his Majesty's
excise, Donald allowed the artist to paint his humble
bothy, his dogs and his bairns, not forgetting the still.
Indeed, the hero himself condescended to sit, and he
looks every inch a connoisseur of "the stuff " as, with
tightly-closed lips, he churns in his mouth the contents
of the empty glass. I verily believe that Landseer also
sampled the " Auld Kirk," as the dram is aifectionately
if euphemistically called, ready to subscribe to the
doctrine of the immortal revenue officer who sang that
"The ae best dance e'er cam to the land, was the De'il's
awa' wi' the exciseman." The figure of the bonnie,
bare-foot lass standing on the right was greatly
admired, and engraved by itself as a type of " Rustic
Beauty." This rare good picture belongs to the Duke
of Wellington, and now hangs in the drawing-room of
Apsley House.
As a rule, however, so far as the human figures were
concerned, Landseer was not so happy in his lowly
Highland interiors as Erskine Nicol was, or Thomas
Faed. This was partly seen in the clever picture of
"Highland Music" (British Institution, 1830), repre-
senting a kilted cotter blowing the grand Highland
bagpipes to the evident delectation of a number of
dogs yowling out of the ecstasy of their joy. This was
another of Mr. Vernon's goodly gifts to his fellow-
countrymen.
69
Sir Edwin Landseer
At the top of his industry, which was yet to be
displayed under high pressure, for a round twenty years
or more, Edwin Landseer was elected a
R.A. Royal Academician in 1831, at the age of
twenty-nine (an honour which Mr. F. G.
Stephens antedates by one year). When a painter is
admitted to full membership it is incumbent upon him
to present an example of his work to the Academy,
which returns the compliment by sending the author of
it his diploma of membership, signed by the Sovereign.
From the attending circumstances these pictures are
known as "diploma" pictures, and be it said, in pass-
ing, that no collection in London is, in an Academic
sense, as interesting or as poorly patronised by the
public as is the Diploma Gallery at Burlington House.
This is singular, since admission is free ; but perhaps
the Council would be better advised to charge an
entrance fee, for in such case it might become the vogue
to " do the Diplomas." Oddly enough, Landseer's
diploma picture was painted in 1830, the year prior to
his election — did the coming event cast its shadow
before? It was a sombre subject — "The Faithful
Hound" (in Mr. Algernon Graves's catalogue it is
styled "The Dead Warrior " ; but "The Dying War-
rior" was Charles Landseer's diploma picture,, repre-
senting a pious monk tendering the last consolations of
his faith to an expiring soldier). In the new R.A.'s
picture a knight in armour lies dead, pillowed against
his prostrate horse, whilst a noble bloodhound howls
his anguish to the winds. The pathos of the dog is
70
Diploma Picture
beautifully rendered, and tone and feeling are fine.
The whole is painted in a low key ; the day, too, is
dying, but the last gleams of light on the horizon speak
of a brighter morrow beyond the grave.
But why, oh ! why, will artists choose such gloomy
themes to celebrate occasions which, to them at least,
should be as wells of gladness ?
71
CHAPTER VI.
THE GOLDEN PRIME.
[1831-40.]
Dexterity— Wells of Redleaf— The Scribblers' Book— Sir Walter Scott
— Plebeian and patrician — "Jack in Office" — "Highland Breakfest"
— Mr. Sheepshanks — Highland scenes — " The Naughty Boy "—
" Suspense "— " The Sleeping Bloodhound "—Mr. Jacob Bell-
Signs of the times — " Comical Dogs " — The best of mimics—
" The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner "— " A Distinguished Mem-
ber of the Humane Society "—"There's Life in the Old Dog yet"
— "None but the Brave Deserve the Fair" — Queer criticism-
Visitor at the R.A. Schools — " Dignity and Impudence "—
" Tethered Rams" — Illness — " Laying Down the Law."
Probably there never was a painter who had such a
gift of combined facility and finish as Landseer pos-
sessed. When seized with a subject to his
Dexterity liking', it was not uncommon for him to
complete it at a sitting. But for their being
vouched for by men and women whose veracity is unim-
peachable, the stories told of his dexterity would be
scarcely credible. The astonishing thing about these
pictures, apart from the speed at which they were
produced, was that they were all surprisingly good.
Rapidity in his case did not mean scamped work. This
must be emphasised in these days of pot-boilers. More-
72
The Laird of Redleaf
over, he would have sinned against his upbringing had
he consented to turn out work which he would have
been ashamed to sign. Besides, the instances of his
swift and sure execution are mostly subsequent to his
election to the dignity of Academician — when noblesse
oblige and amour propre forbade jerry-work, — though
one famous example belongs to that very year. This
was the portrait of " Trim," to which title is added, as
a pendant, the comment of a bystander — ' ' The old dog
looks like a picture."
Allusion to it leads to the mention of one of Land-
seer's dearest friends, Mr. William Wells of Redleaf,
near Tunbridge Wells, justly celebrated for nr n f
his hearty encouragement of young men „ ,, '^■
of talent. Many a painter that afterwards
reached the ranks of the sacred Forty owed more
than his first incentive to go in and win to the
kindly and thoughtful consideration of this wise and
judicious patron. Landseer was a frequent and wel-
come visitor at Redleaf. Mr. Wells believed it to be a
privilege to entertain artists, and kept one pleasant re-
cord of their forgatherings under his hospitable roof, in
the shape of what came to be proudly designated " The
Scribblers' Book," already referred to in these pages, in
which he good-humouredly required every artist to
make at least one sketch, with power to add to the
number. One specimen of their skill, however, was de
rigueur. They were free to choose their own subject,
and many of the contributors ransacked the neighbour-
hood for "bits," not sparing the parson of "Penshurst
73
Sir Edwin Landseer
and the smock-frocked rustics. Frederick Goodall,
R.A., was represented by several choice morceaux, both
"plain and coloured;" W. P. Frith, R.A., illustrated
Molifere with apt skill; F. R. Lee, R.A., was there, and
so too was E. W. Cooke, R.A. ; "Frank" Grant, all
unwitting of the distant presidency and knighthood, lent
a hand ; and by special licence several distinguished
amateurs, titled and untitled, were admitted of the
company. But Landseer was easily first, alike for the
variety, the excellence, and the number of his sketches.
The Book ultimately ran to two volumes before its
excellent projector gazed on it for the last time with
mortal eye. It is a unique example of the Omnium
Gatherum, and its only possible destination surely is
manifest.
Nor did the genial host expect his guests to loaf, or
holiday-make, if they felt disposed for work, Landseer
and Goodall were often at Redleaf painting together,
each in a room allotted to him. In the evening the
dinner-table was the common rendezvous, and there
Landseer, if in form, reigned supreme. He was a
brilliant conversationalist, full of anecdote and fun, a
ready raconteur, endowed with a knack of suiting the
action to the word that made some of his recitals quite
dramatic. Especially was this noticeable after he had
conquered Scotland, or been conquered by it. His
experiences in deer-stalking were related with a vivid-
ness that was startling, and that presented his hearers
with a perfect picture of the scene.
Mr. Wells was in some things punctilious. Most of us
74
The Tale of "Trim"
would be miserable without our pet idiosyncrasies. A
generous host, he yet did not care for beer to be seen
at dinner. On one occasion Landseer created much
merriment by asking in provokingly deliberate tones,
" Would you consider me a beast, Mr. Wells, if I had
a glass of beer ? " Another point upon which the laird
of Redleaf held strong views was churchgoing. He
rather expected his guests, however numerous, to
attend service. Most of them complied, but Landseer
invariably stood out. He had no objection to Mr.
Wells's going, but go himself he positively would not.
One Sunday Mr. Wells and company found, on their
return, a newly-finished canvas on Landseer's easel.
It seemed that the folk had scarcely left for church in
the morning, when the painter observed a spaniel bound
across the bracken with a rabbit in its teeth. The artist
saw a subject at once, went straight to his room, took
out a fresh canvas, and finished the picture right away.
On the stem of a birch-tree in the background he wrote,
"To W. Wells, Esq., with the author's respects.
Painted by E. Landseer in two hours and a half.
Redleaf, August 1831." If this was meant to soften
his refusal to accompany Mr. Wells to church, the ruse
succeeded. Mr. Wells greatly prized the gift, which
he hung up on the door of his bedroom — a. room which
was, so to speak, sacred to Landseer, for its walls were
covered only with his drawings. And that is the tale
of "Trim."
To the diplomate year belongs the pleasant portrait
of "Sir Walter Scott," now in the National Portrait
75
Sir Edwin Landseer
Gallery in London. This, however, was not the
first picture which owed its inspiration to Abbotsford.
In 1827 Landseer had exhibited at the
^r Walter g^j^jgjj institution his rendering of a " Scene
" at Abbotsford," designed to commemorate
" Maida," then old and feeble, who died a few weeks
later. Sir Walter was a zealous Landseerian. Under
date of February 13th, 1826, he writes in his Diary,
as quoted by Lockhart: — " Landseef's dogs were the
most magnificent things I ever saw — leaping, and
bounding, and grinning on the canvas." Three years
later Scott paid the painter the handsome compliment
of acknowledged indebtedness in his General Preface to
the Abbotsford edition of the Waverley Novels. In
1833 Landseer's "Sir Walter Scott seated in the
Rhymer's Glen " was shown at the Royal Academy
■ — a posthumous portrait of which Lockhart says that
the artist's " familiarity with Scott renders this almost
as valuable as if he had sat for it. This beautiful
picture is in the gallery of Mr. Wells [of Redleaf]." A
quarter of a century afterwards Landseer harked back
to Abbotsford, for one of two pictures by which he was
represented at the British Institution in 1858, after six
years' desertion, illustrated an " Extract from a Journal
whilst at Abbotsford," which recorded, to quote Mr.
Algernon Graves's catalogue, that he "found the great
poet in his study laughing at a collie dog playing with
Maida, his favourite old deerhound, given him by Glen-
garry ; and quoting Shakespeare — ' Crabbed age and
youth cannot live together.' On the floor was a cover
76
Highland Pictures
of a proof-sheet sent for correction by Constable of the
novel then in progress [? The Betrothed]. N.B. — This
took place before he was the acknowledged author of
the Waverley Novels."
Highland subjects, on the one hand, and portrait-
groups of the dlite of the aristocracy, on the other, kept
Landseer very busy in the early 'thirties. .
The "Poacher's Bothy" (Royal Academy, ^1^°^^^
1831) showed how success jeopardised the . .
trespasser. The law-breaker has secured
a stag, but he wears a worried look lest he be
caught red-handed, and has had to give up his box-
bed to the victim of his nefarious gun, for the better
concealment of the booty. Another Highland interior
represents an old crone who lives now wholly in the
past, but whose memory still fondly lingers around
bonnie Prince Charlie. This is "The Auld Wife"
(British Institution, 1832), which is now the property
of Lord Cheylesmore. "She minds naething o' what
passes the day, but set her on auld tales, and she can
speak like a prent buke. She'll ken fine CuUoden's sad
day (though, maybe, she couldna tell ye what to-day
is). Yon was the guidman's claymore." Mr. Algernon
Graves says that when Sir Edwin saw the picture in
Manchester (at the Art Treasures Exhibition in 1857),
he declared that he ' ' kept the woman alive with whisky
while he painted her." As for the pictures in which the
nobility figured, they had grown so numerous — and
continued so plentiful for many years to come — that
Burke might engrave them with advantage to illuminate
77
Sir Edwin Landseer
the somewhat stodgy and sawdustish pages of his
" Peerage." To the friendships already formed with
the Russells and Abercorn Hamiltons he was now
privileged to add intimacy with the Cavendishes, which
eventuated in the " Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time"
of 1834, which Samuel Cousins's fine engraving rendered
for at least half a century one of those pictures "which
no gentleman's family should be without," and for
which, by-the-bye, he obtained the modest sum of ;^400.
It was no doubt gratifying to Landseer to mix on equal
footing with the highest classes in the land. At present
the prospect seemed bright and hopeful, but in later
years it was seen that the strain of the intercourse had
wrought irreparable mischief.
Amongst the Sheepshanks pictures two popular ones
were painted in 1833 and 1834, These were "A Jack
, in Office" (Royal Academy, 1833) and the
■ o/w " "Highland Breakfast." A vendor of cat's,
•"^ meat who has gone in search of "a drop
of something short " at the nearest gin-shop has left his
goods and chattels under the charge of a brawny
mongrel, which, seated aloft on the barrow, eyes with
lazy disdain the curs of various breed that, ' ' letting ' I
dare not' wait upon ' I would,'" are half-hoping, half-
praying that the custodian may be false to his trust and
allow them to convey a portion of the coveted fare.,
"Jack," it is plain, does not care a rap for any of them,
and so suffers no temptation to play the traitor. The
expressions of the different solicitors are capitally
caught, and the picture is an unusually fine example
78
John Sheepshanks
of the Landseerian school — well drawn, well painted,
well conceived. The "Highland Breakfast" (Royal
Academy, 1834) represents a number of dogs at their
morning feed in a humble hut. Some of them hatig back,
for the mess is yet too hot, but they will all fall to ere
long. Meanwhile the puppies of one decline to wait,
and assail their mother's dugs with brisk energy. The
cotter's wife, too, infected with the spirit of the scene,
seizes the opportunity to give her baby its morning
draught. The consentaneousness of the meal is amus-
ing, if a trifle overdone. Landseer had a trick at times
of accentuating the note of his subject. In "There's
no Place like Home," for example, it was a happy touch
to introduce a crawling snail carrying its home on its .
back.
John Sheepshanks, it is perhaps time we explained,
was a sleeping partner in a Leeds cloth-house. He was
one of the most judicious buyers of his day, Af ci. j.
and his house at Rutland Gate, Hyde Park, ' , ,
SflCtttKS
was full of treasures. He acquired several
of the finest Landseers at prices incredibly small.
One of the largest — " The Departure of the Highland
Drovers" — was a commission from the Duke of Bedford
for ;^5oo. When the picture was finished, the Duke
told the painter that he was very poor, and that if he
(Landseer) could find another purchaser for the noble
work, he would abandon his claim to it. Mr. Sheep-
shanks was only too glad to step into his Grace's shoes.
He also secured "A Jack in Office," "The Old Shepherd's
Chief Mourner," "The Tethered Rams," and others,
79
Sir Edwin Landseer
" dirt cheap." If any one remarked to this effect, how-
ever, Mr. Sheepshanks fired up instantly. The patron,
says Mr. Frith, protested pointedly, "Well, I always
give what is asked for a picture, or I don't buy it at all
— never beat a man down in my life : never sold a
picture, and I never will ; and if what I hear of the
prices you gentlemen are getting now is true, I can't
pay them, so my picture-buying days are over." But
the nation is the richer for Mr. Sheepshanks's high-
souled self-denial.
Moreover, it must be said of Mr. Sheepshanks's point
of view, that it would have been better for Art and
artists — and, it may be added, for Letters and writers of
books — if the practice of paying inflated prices had never
"caught on." Incalculable harm has followed it. The
painters, of course, were not solely to blame, any more
than the authors. When manufacturers and financiers
amassed immense fortunes ^er salium, and competed with
one another for the pictures of the foremost men of the
day, the artists would have been more, or less, than
human had they declined these dazzling offers (though
Turner did it more than once). But the effect upon
most of them was pernicious in the extreme. It en-
couraged ostentation and luxury — the mere pride of
living — which afforded not only the worst possible, but
one might almost say a positively vicious, milieu for the
production of the best work, with the inevitable result
that when bad times came the men were reduced to pot-
boiling. The necessity to keep up a false position
clashed disastrously With the pursuit of Art for its own
80
The " Highland Drovers "
sake, which would always have been possible, had they
been content to live in a more modest fashion, and put
by their earnings for the " rainy day."
Landseer made a point of spending every autumn,
as long as his health permitted, and sometimes even
when he was scarcely physically fit to stand „. , , ,
the climate, in the Scottish Highlands. ^^^'■"■^"'
These holidays usually left their mark on his c^nes
work. To these golden years of the 'thirties belong his
" Harvest in the Highlands " (Royal Academy, 1833)
and "Crossing the Bridge" (1834). Though the former
lacks concentration, it is an important work, the nature
of which is sufficiently indicated by its title. Its back-
ground, as has been mentioned, was put in by Sir
Augustus W. Calcott, R.A. The latter was of an
original design. The bridge occupies the centre of the
canvas, and a party of deer-stalkers are in the act of
crossing, with the ponies laden with the spoils of the
day's sport. At their head, already clear of the bridge,
marches a piper, blowing with customary verve. The
landscape is well felt. Another subject, " Highland
Shepherd's Dog Rescuing a Sheep in the Snow " (Royal
Academy, 1834), was expressly alluded to in the Land-
seer memorial sermon preached in St. Paul's Cathedral
on the 12th of October, 1873, for its fine didactic
qualities. But the "Highland Drovers' Departure"
(Royal Academy, 1835) is, in many respects, the most
admirable of all the Highland pictures. Flocks and
herds are ready for the road ; the grandfather (old John
Landseer) is to partake of a drop of "the cratur" to
81 G
Sir Edwin Landseer
fortify him for the journey; a pair of lovers have
their last fond crack for the while ; the granny seems
upset at the notion of flitting; a hen defends her brood
spiritedly from a saucy terrier; a boy teases another
dog ; the scene represents just the last spell of rest and
refreshment prior to starting on a long and tedious
tramp, Landseer painted the picture with obvious zest.
In point of colour it must rank with his most excellent
work, the scenery is rendered with striking fidelity, and
the animals are beautifully drawn. One blemish it
has — the artist has introduced too many isolated
incidents, a defect which breaks up the composition
and makes you feel that it wants "pulling together."
It was seldom that Landseer painted a child without
any four-footed or other companion, but "The Naughty
" The Boy" (British Institution, 1834) of the Sheep-
j^ ,. shanks Gift is said to have been the result of
^ „ a fluke. A lady having brought her son to
sit, the boy sulked, rebelled, and flatly
refused to pose as he had been placed — evidently a
spoiled child. (I am told the "boy" was a girl-
Lady Rachel Russell.) His mamma having exerted her
authority in vain, at last stood him in " the corner," as
a punishment for his contumacy. Here the laddie's
sturdy, defiant look impressed Landseer, who quickly
sketched him for this picture. He -mas naughty, too.
His slate lies in pieces at his feet, his hair is all rumpled,
his frock dishevelled, his boots undone: but there he
stands obdurate and unsubdued.
Some of Landseer's masterpieces were produced in
82
Beautiful Dog Pictures
1834 and the following years. They were ushered in
with the noble "Suspense" (British Institution, 1834),
now national property, thanks to Mr. Sheep-
shanks. Abloodhound gazes with tearful eyes "Suspense"
at the closed door of a room into which has
just been borne the injured form of his knightly master.
How serious are his wounds we can only conjecture,
but the blood-drops on the floor indicate the gravity of
the case, which is emphasised by the infinite pathos and
pity of the dog's attitude and aspect. That is the whole
subject, for the accessories are few, and merely such as
convey some hint of the master's rank and the severity
of the struggle in which he has been engaged — the
gauntlets on the table and the torn plume on the
ground. It is impossible to overrate the dignity of the
treatment, the beauty of the sentiment, or the superb
technique in the drawing of the dog. One almost
expects to see the heart-broken hound break down ; the
sobs are quivering on its lips. One marvels, too, at the
skill which enabled the painter to read the thoughts that
fill the anxious creature's breast.
Following hard upon this fine work came another of
equal qualities, the "Sleeping Bloodhound" (British
Institution, 1835), which also happily is the „ ^i^^p^^^
property of the nation, through the munifi- Rlnod
cence of Mr. Jacob Bell, who owned both hnund"
dog and picture. The tragic circumstances
in which it came to be painted are succinctly related in
the account supplied by Mr. Bell, and printed in Mr.
Algernon Graves's catalogue. "Countess" had been
83
Sir Edwin Landseer
waiting for two or three years her turn for a sitting.
She sometimes slept on the balcony outside her master's
room in his house at Putney. One moonlight Sunday
night she overbalanced and fell a height of twenty-three
feet, dying soon afterwards. In the morning she was
conveyed to Landseer's house in the hope that the artist
would consent to make at least a sketch by way of a
souvenir. Ordinarily it was against rules to intrude
upon the painter's working privacy, but Mr. Bell
decided to take the risk of incurring displeasure. The
story of the mishap stirred all Landseer's sympathies,
and after expressing his sorrow he bade his friend
return in three days. On Thursday, at 2 p.m., Mr.
Bell called, and there beheld this great picture of his
beloved " Countess," life-size, but by the nature of the
case represented as fast asleep. This painting was not
achieved without great difficulty, for the poor creature
had to be "set up" before her remains became rigid.
Fortunately, Landseer's knowledge of dog habits and
anatomy enabled him to pose "Countess" with mar-
vellous realism. By what felicitous inspiration was it
that nearly all Landseer's grandest works, belonging as
they did to different owners, were ultimately bequeathed
to the nation? Is there a cherub sitting up aloft to
whisper good counsel to picture-collectors ?
Jacob Bell was an intimate friend of Landseer's, so
much so that he took in hand the conduct of his busi-
ness affairs, as we have seen, after his father found them
too onerous. The son of a druggist who had founded
a prosperous business in Oxford Street in London
84
Nipped in the Bud
(still carried on under his style), he had a genuine
taste for Art, and at one time really intended to adopt
the painter's profession. He was a fellow- m T h
student of Mr. W. P. Frith's at Sass's ^' q" n
Academy in Bloomsbury, and Mr. Frith's
story of Bell's discomfiture is told so racily (for he was
an eye-witness of it) that I must give it in his own words.
" Bell," writes Frith, " went through the drawing from
the flat with much tribulation, and at last began the
fearful plaster ball [a model from which Sass's students
learned light and shade], in the representation of which
he had advanced considerably ; but he also had arrived
at the limit of his patience, and on one fatal Monday
morning, after witnessing an early execution at New-
gate, he drew the scaffold and the criminal hanging on
it, in the centre of the ball. We were grouped round
the artist listening to an animated account of the
murderer's last ^moments when Sass appeared. The
crowd of listeners ran to their seats and waited for the
storm. Mr. Sass looked at the drawing and went out
of the studio — a pin might have been heard to drop.
Bell looked round and winked at me. Sass returned,
and walked slowly up to Mr. Jacob Bell, and addressed
him as follows : ' Sir, Mr. Bell ; sir, your father placed
you under my care for the purpose of making an artist
of you. I can't do it; I can make nothing of you. I
should be robbing your father if I did it. You had
better go, sir; such a career as this,' pointing to the
man hanging, ' is a bad example to your fellow-pupils.
You must leave, sir I'
85
Sir Edwin Landseer
" ' All right,' said Bell, and away he went, returning
to the druggist's shop established by his father in
Oxford Street, where he made a large fortune, devoting
it mainly to the encouragement of art and artists [he
purchased Mr. Frith's famous "Derby Day" and left
it also to the nation], and dying prematurely [in 1859],
beloved and regretted by all who knew him.
"It is reported of his father, a rigid Quaker, who
watched with disapproval his son's purchases of pic-
tures, that he said to him one day, ' What business
hast thou to buy those things, wasting thy substance ? '
" ' I can sell any of those things for more than I gave
for them, some for twice as much.'
" ' Is that verily so ? ' said the old man. ' Then I see
no sin in thy buying more.'
"When Bell first appeared at Sass's, he wore the
Quaker coat; but finding that the students showed
their disapproval in a marked and unpleasant manner —
such, for instance, as writing ' Quaker ' in white chalk
across his back — he discarded that vestrnent, and very-
soon afterwards was discarded himself by the Quakers.
His dismissal happened in this wise. At 'meeting'
the men sit on one side of the chapel, and the women on
the other. Bell disliked this arrangement, and finding
remonstrance of rio avail, he disguised himself in female
attire and took his place in the forbidden seats. For a
time all went well, but a guilty conscience came into
play on seeing two of the congregation speaking
together and eyeing him suspiciously the while; he
took fright, and catching up his petticoats, he went out
86
"Comical Dogs"
from ' meeting ' with a stride that proclaimed his sex.
For this he was, as I have heard him tell many a time,
expelled from the community."
About this period, too, there are signs that Landseer
was establishing himself in the estimation of the most
exalted persons in the United Kingdom; ^. ,
for "Prince George's Favourites" (Royal /x. y
Academy, 1835) was a composition intro-
ducing the Duke of Cambridge's pony "Selim," his
Newfoundland " Nelson," and his spaniel " Flora,"
while " Dash " was a portrait of the Duchess of Kent's
favourite spaniel, to which, by the way, an inscribed
marble monument was erected on the slopes of Windsor
Castle, — a similar token of affection being raised there
also to "Eos" when it died in July, 1844. In carrying
out such intimate commissions as these he must have
met the young Princess Victoria, who seems to have
regarded him with pointed favour from the first, and
was shortly to be in a position to bestow upon him
the most coveted patronage.
Meanwhile Landseer's love of humour still remained in
an almost boyish stage. One phase of it was visible in
his "Comical Dogs" (British Institution, 1836), another
of Mr. Sheepshanks's presents to the nation. Clap a
Tam o' Shanter cap on a shaggy terrier and make him
look at you with a palpable wink, and stick a clay pipe
in the jaws of a black-and-tan wearing an auld wife's
newly-ironed mutch, and you have the materials of this
picture, which, though well painted, is not excruciatingly
funny. C. R. Leslie gives a laughable account of the
87
Sir Edwin Landseer
painter's animal spirits at a dinner-party at Sir Francis
Chantrey's, which is typical of the Landseer whom all
his fellow-artists loved. The incident dates itself
about this period when, in "Pen, Brush, and Chisel"
(Royal Academy, 1836), he commemorated the sculp-
tor's prowess in killing two woodcocks with one shot.
"After the cloth was removed from the beautifully-
polished mahogany," writes Leslie, " — Chantrey's
furniture was all beautiful — Landseer's attention was
called, by him to the reflection, in the table, of the
company, furniture, lamps, etc. ' Come and sit in my
place and study perspective,' said our host, and went
himself to the fire. As soon as Landseer was seated in
Chantrey's chair, he turned round, and imitating his
voice and manner, said to him, ' Come, young man,
you think yourself ornamental; now make yourself
useful, and ring the bell.' Chantrey did as he was
desired — the butler appeared, and was perfectly be-
wildered at hearing his master's voice, at the head of
the table, order more claret, while he saw him standing
before the fire." Landseer must often have been in the
mood for such excellent fooling, for Leslie calls him
the "best of mimics." In effect he accepted Horace's
philosophy — Dulce est desipere in loco. These hours
of ease and jollity, however, were purchased, at this
period of his career, by days of closest application to
the studio.
One trait in canine nature that appealed to Landseer
with peculiar force was the animal's devotion to its
master. This was the "note" of his diploma
88
e
3
<
Praise from Ruskin
picture, of "Suspense," and others; nor was the
eagerness to save human life which distinguishes
certain breeds a very dissimilar, or less ^^
inspiring characteristic. There was no trace
of the morbid in this deliberate choice, for ni,- f
the feeling was always true and ennobling, ^
and he spared no pains to do justice to
such themes. Two fine examples of this class of subject
were "The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner" (Royal
Academy, 1837) and "The Shepherd's Grave" (1837).
The former — which the nation possesses, owing to the
magnanimity of Mr. Sheepshanks — is the more famous,
because it elicited the praise of Mr. Ruskin, by no means
too well affected to Landseer, in a passage -of remark-
able beauty and eloquence. "Take, for instance,"
wrote the author of Modem Painters (Part I., sec. i,
chap', ii.), " one of the most perfect poems or pictures
(I use the words as synonymous) which modern 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
cofBn and the folds of the blanket, are lainguage —
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 powerless-
ness of the head laid, close and motionless, upon its
folds, the fixed and tearful fall of the eye in its utter
hopelessness, the rigidity of repose which marks that
89
Sir Edwin Landseer
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 art, and stamps its author, not as the
neat imitator of the texture of a skin, or the fold of a
drapery, but as a Man of Mind." And with reference
to the value of relation, balance, and congruity in a
picture, Ruskin illustrates these qualities by a further
allusion to this great work. " It would add little to
Landseer's picture," he remarks, " that the form of the
dog should be conceived with every perfection of curve
and colour which its nature was capable of, and that
the ideal lines should be carried out with the science
of a Praxiteles; nay, the instant that the beauty so
obtained interfered with the impression of agony and
desolation, and drew the mind away from the feeling
of the animal to its outward form, that instant would
the picture become monstrous and degraded" (Part I.,
sec. I, chap. vii.). It is true that Ruskin's memory
misled him in regard to one or two trifling details in
the composition, but Criticism has said its last word in
this just and worthy eulogy. Excepting for its change
of scene, the sentiment of "The Shepherd's Grave"
is wrought out on lines of equal simplicity and pathos.
90
Under Arrest
The herd's dog has foUo.wed his master to his last
resting-place, and we know instinctively what the noble
creature's end will be.
Mr. Frith told me an amusing story about " The Old
Shepherd's Chief Mourner." Landseer once accom-
panied a number of ladies who were anxious to see
the picture. The painter was explaining its points to
them, and in the course of his talk had occasion to
direct their attention to a particular passage in the
work. The better to elucidate his meaning he actually
touched the part in question. This was little short of
high crime and misdemeanour in the eyes of the guardian
of the peace and pictures on duty in the gallery. Going
up to Landseer, whom he had viewed all along with
considerable suspicion, he asked him what he meant by
touching the picture, warning him' not to repeat the
offence.
"My good fellow," replied the painter, taking in the
situation at a glance, " I have touched it over and over
again."
"Well, if I'd seen you," retorted the zealous
constable, "I'd have run you in." Moreover, he
insisted upon Landseer's going with him 'to the
authorities before whom he lodged his complaint.
Then the policeman learned the facts and his case was
dismissed.
Even more popular than this, because less
melancholy, was the picture so happily called "A
Distinguished Member of the Humane Society"
(Royal Academy, 1838), representing a grand New-
9\
Sir Edwin Landseer
foundland sitting at ease on the seaward end of a pier.
It is high tide and the water in its gentle swell laps
,,A^- the iron ring to which boats are moored.
" The darkening sky flecked with a few
j^f , J. gulls indicates that dirty weather may be
•^ expected, when, should occasion arise, the
noble animal will do its duty. Landseer had
. „ first seen the dog carrying a basket of gaily-
•^ coloured flowers, and was so impressed with
its beauty, that, when dining with its owner, Mr. New-
man Smith, of Croydon Lodge, Croydon, he proposed
painting its likeness. Accordingly the dog was sent to
St. John's Wood Road, where, lying upon a table in
the studio, he sat patiently for his portrait, into which,
as Mr. Broderip puts it, Landseer infused " Promethean
fire." The painter's fee was ;^8o, which those who
have seen the picture in the Tate Gallery shall judge
whether it were exorbitant or not. The engraving (a
great favourite) was dedicated to the Royal Humane
Society. In a letter to Mr. Lambton Young, the
Secretary of the Society (published many years later
in the Athenceum for February 7th, 1885), Landseer
afterwards gave an interesting account of the picture,
in which he said the dog's name was " Paul Pry." " I
wrote in a hurry on the back of the canvas as a title —
when it was going from my studio to the Royal
Academy Exhibition — the title it now goes by. Mrs.
Newman Smith has the picture, and I believe it is left
to the National Gallery. I can only, in conclusion, add
that Mr. Newman Smith was rather disappointed when
92
Rogers and the Rusty Ring
his dog appeared in character rather than ' the property
of Newman Smith, Esq., of Croydon Lodge.'" Mr.
Edward Walford having committed himself to the
opinion that the dog's name was " Leo" — which to be
sure fits it much better than its real name does — and a
"frequent swimmer in the Wandle" [Greater London,
vol. ii. 178), Mr. Algernon Graves set the point at
issue beyond dispute by writing directly to Mrs.
Newman Smith. "The dog was bred," her answer
ran, "by the late Philip Bacon, Esq., and was given to
us (his cousins) as a puppy. It was never out of the
possession of the family, and lived and died in my
husband's house. He was named Paul Pry."
After the picture was finished Samuel Rogers, the
poet, took a company of ladies to see it at Landseer's
house. They were ushered in to the studio. At the
moment Landseer was in an adjoining room and could
not help hearing what passed. The women were
enthusiastic, but Rogers grunted out — "The same old
story! But the ring's good; yes, the ring's good."
(It will be remembered that the mooring-ring is the
merest accessory.) Presently he invited Landseer to
breakfast next morning, these famous repasts being
usually attended by the flower of Society. At table
talk turned on the latest Landseer, of which Rogers
spoke in the warmest terms. Landseer was rather
taken aback at this apparent insincerity.
"You didn't say so yesterday, Rogers," he rapped
out, " why don't you stick to the rusty ring? "
This year of 1838 was a veritable annus mirabilis.
93
Sir Edwin Landseer
" There's Life in the Old Dog yet " (Royal Academy)
represented a tragical incident in the chase. A stag
and deerhound have both dashed over a
precipice in the impetus of their flight,
on rju ^^^ ^ deer-stalker, having been lowered by
^"'^ means of a rope, is depicted with one hand
on the dog, shouting to the party above the words that
gave a title to the picture. When Mr. Vernon Heath —
a nephew of the donor of the Vernon Gallery to the
fortunate British nation — was at Inveraray in 1871, he
drove thence to Dalmally, at the suggestion of Land-
seer, to see Peter Robertson, the model of the deer-
stalker. He found the old keeper at work in a rick-yard,
and the effect of the utterance of Sir Edwin's name was
magical. He was beside himself with joy, and plied
Mr. Heath with many a question about the painter.
On his return to London, Mr. Heath called upon Mr.
Henry Graves of Pall Mall and mentioned his visit to
Peter Robertson. This set them speaking of the
picture, about which Mr. Graves related a curious
incident. It was painted for Mr. Henry McConnell,
who was asked to lend it to the Art Treasures
Exhibition in Manchester in 1857. He had a strong
prejudice to railways, and only consented upon the
understanding that the picture was to be removed from
his house to Manchester by road. This was agreed to,
and " There's Life in the Old Dog yet " was one of the
most admired features of a remarkable collection. At
the close the picture was started on its return journey,
and while passing over a level-crossing en route, an
94
Illuminated by the Sun
approaching train dashed into the van and smashed it
to pieces. From its appearance at the time it was
feared the picture was hopelessly destroyed, especially
when it was discovered that a portion of the canvas had
been caught by and wound around one of the engine-
wheels. Luckily, it turned out that the damage, though
serious, was not beyond remedy, and the services of a
skilled restorer being enlisted, it was so well repaired
that its owner was enabled to sell it to Mr. John Naylor
for £i,S7S. It is, however, but proper to say that Mr.
Algernon Graves throws doubts upon this story. ' ' I
have seen the picture since," he writes, "and cannot
believe that it was ever smashed. As an expert, if it
had been, I should have discovered some damages when
looking for them."
"None but the Brave deserve the Fair" (Royal
Academy) was another brilliant picture representing
two stags fighting on a mountain pass, ^
whilst a group of does, the cause of all the
woe, gaze on the mortal combat, partly
startled, partly in admiration. Lady Louisa r- • »
Wells has been good enough to inform me
that once when Landseer was her husband's guest at
the Holme Wood in Huntingdonshire, he was confined
to his room by illness. One afternoon the setting sun
poured into the drawing-room full upon this picture
and upon none other, lighting up the storm in the glen
amongst the hills marvellously. She thought the sight
of it thus gloriously illuminated might do the painter
good, but when she asked him to come down to see it,
95
Sir Edwin Landseer
he begged to be excused, as it would be too much for
him in his then state of nervous depression. The
picture fetched ;^4,620 at the sale of Mr. Wells's
collection.
Mr. Frith, who had no bias in favour of the profes-
sional art critic, was able to point a moral and adorn a
Th A f ^^ from the history of the " Hare and Stoat "
^ ... (British Institution, 1838). The incident is
. . so vividly rendered that, said Frith, " one
could almost hear the screams of the poor
creature." For many years the following choice specimen
of art criticism was pasted on the back of the frame,
and, indeed, it may perhaps still be there: — " In Mr.
Landseer's picture of a rabbit attacked by a weasel, it
appears to us that the rabbit is more like a hare, and
the weasel has none of the characteristics of that species
of vermin, for it is more like a stoat."
One of the few ofHcial duties that an Academician has
to discharge is that of Visitor at the Schools, a post
which each of the more recently elected members fills in
rotation. The mention of Mr. Frith's name recalls the
fact that whilst he was a student (1838-40) this function
fell to Landseer. " He was," writes the ever-genial
painter of " Derby Day," " a very fashionable person-
. age, and we all rather wondered at seeing
him willing to spend evenings usually devoted
■ ' to high society, in the service of the Life
Schools School. He read the whole time [founding
himself perhaps upon the precedent of Fuseli], and one
evening a very old gentleman in list slippers, with a
96
Rebuked by his Father
speaking-trumpet under his arm, shuffled into the school.
This was John Landseer, an eminent engraver, an
Associate of the Academy, and father of Edwin Land-
seer, whom he greatly resembled. His son rose to meet
him, the book he had been reading in his hand.
" ' You are not drawing, then ; why don't you draw ? '
said the old man in a loud voice.
" ' Don't feel inclined,' shouted the son down the
trumpet.
" ' Then you ought to feel inclined. That's a fine
figure; get out your paper and draw.'
" ' Haven't got any paper,' said the son.
" ' What's that book ? ' said the father.
" ' Oliver Twist,'' said Edwin Landseer, in a voice
loud enough to reach Trafalgar Square.
'" Is it about art ? '
'"No; it's about Oliver Twist.'
"'Let me look at it. Ha! it's some of Dickens's
nonsense, I see [published in 1838]. You'd much better
draw than waste your time upon such stuff as that.'"
The interview hugely gratified the students, who
tittered as they delightedly watched the great animal-
painter —
" Gathering his brows like gathering storm,
Nursing his wrath, to keep it warm."
The fact was that Landseer was always late, and kept
the students cooling their heels outside the National
Gallery, the while he was posing the model, often in an
aggravatingly difficult position. The relations between
97 «
Sir Edwin Landseer
them and Landseer were rather strained. The night
following the old gentleman's visit, they were detained
outside even longer than usual, and began kicking and
stamping. This mutinous spirit produced its natural
effect. Next night a notice was exhibited requiring
them to stay downstairs until summoned by bell to the
Life School, then held in the centre cupola of the
National Gallery, which the students profanely called
the "pepper-box." Across this order was promptly
written in flaring capitals the expressive word HUM-
BUG. By-and-by Mr. George Jones, R.A., the Keeper
of the Royal Academy, and head of all the Schools,
entered the Life School, carrying the obnoxious notice.
"Gentlemen," he said, — "I use the word in addressing
you collectively, but there is one person amongst you
who has no claim to the appellation — I hold in my
hand evidence of vulgar insubordination. I am sorry
to think that an act which must have been witnessed by
some of you was not prevented before it was perpetrated.
I seek not, gentlemen, to discover the author of this
insult, for if I knew him it would be my painful duty to
pursue him to his expulsion," with more in terrorem.
But it may be supposed there is a good deal of human
nature even in young London art students, without
believing them to be guilty of the banality and horseplay
so prevalent till a much later date amongst their corv-
frkres in the Quartier Latin. However that may be,
Landseer never ofliciated again. It was not his fault
that he had no gift for teaching. He was the victim of
a cast-iron system which required a painter to become a
98
Cheap at jTjo
teacher whether he cared for the work or not. Landseer
was quite frank in the matter. "There is," he said,
"nothing to teach," meaning' probably that he had
nothing to impart; that he lacked either the aptitude
or the desire, or both.
To 1839 belongs another dog picture that has always
been a favourite. This was "Dignity and Impudence,"
the former being typified by a majestic blood- ^ .
hound of the Duke of Grafton's breed, and *^ ^
therefore called "Grafton," the latter by a '*'**
terrier named "Scratch," which has been , '^
permitted to share a nook of his lordly com-
panion's kennel. Mr. Algernon Graves says the blood-
hound was a visitor at the studios of several painters
and sculptors. The picture was purchased by Mr.
Jacob Bell for £i,o. To a friend remonstrating with
him for not giving the artist more, Bell retorted, "D'ye
mean to say that you wouldn't have taken the picture
for ;£so?" Landseer, as we have said, had no notion of
the money value of his pictures, and sold several of his
choicest works at prices which make one's mouth water
to read of. That Bell was actuated by no sordid motive
in paying the painter the price he asked, was demon-
strated by his bequeathing the picture to the British
nation. O si sic omnes!
To Mr. Sheepshanks's public spirit his fellow-country-
men are indebted for the beautiful picture of the
"Tethered Rams" (Royal Academy, 1839). The rams,
though tethered, are also guarded by sheep dogs,
which keep an eye as well upon the flock nibbling
99
Sir Edwin Landseer
the grass on the braes, whilst the herd laddie is court-
ing- his lass. The painting of the ram's fleece is a
" T ft. J J"®*-'y admired example of the artist's perfect
„ „ technique, and the loch in the background
and the hills beyond are put in with his
wonted happiness when dealing with his beloved Scottish
scenery.
In 1840 Landseer fell ill. A man of extraordinary
sensibility, there is no doubt but that the dual burden
was already beginning to tell upon his con-
Illness stitution. The decade which opened with
his R. A. -ship was a period of great fecundity
on the highest plane of excellence. His powers, how-
ever, were quite equal to the working strain had he
been content to lead the quieter and homelier life of his
fellows. But he had been drawn into the vortex of
fashionable society, and was eagerly sought after and
made much of. This was hitting him on his weaker
side, and to associate with "dukes and duchesses,''
with lords and ladies, had for him a certain fascination.
Hard work and Society routs set a hot pace and left
him no time for "training." There was the personal
factor, too. The lionised, especially when of a highly-
strung nature, is apt to see slights and affronts where
none are offered; to become a prey to jealousy and
gnawing suspicion; to be perpetually on the tenter-
hooks of a dread of faux pas and the hauntings of
imagined neglect. It was such moods and misgivings
as these that ultimately wrecked Landseer's peace of
mind. This illness of 1840 was a broad hint that he
Holiday on the Continent
was overtaxing himself, but unfortunately he paid small
heed to the monitor. Kind Jacob Bell took him through
Belgium and up the Rhine to Switzerland. At Geneva,
the guide, philosopher, and friend was himself laid up
with an attack of quinsy, but after six weeks' detention
they returned home by way of Paris. That this tour left
little trace on Landseer's work testifies to the vigilance
of his custodian, who having brought him in search of
health was determined he should find it, and allowed
him to sketch only now and again to "keep his hand
in."
Before they started the painter had finished several
pictures for the Royal Academy, of which the most
notable was "Laying Down the Law." Like ^
so many of his popular works, this one had /^
a casual sort of origin. Count D'Orsay's „
French poodle was resting on the table in
the attitude represented in the picture, when Lord
Lyndhurst — who had held the Seals before, and would
hold them again — remarked, "What a capital Lord
Chancellor ! " The hint was not lost on Landseer, who
painted the picture with wonted spirit and speed. At
the request of the Duke of Devonshire, whose property
it became, the artist, after the work had been com-
pleted, introduced his Grace's Blenheim spaniel just
above the highly-bred greyhound which views with so
much hauteur its vulgar neighbour, the bulldog. Proofs
before spaniel are far scarcer, it need hardly be said,
than proofs before letters, — so rare, indeed, that Mr.
Algernon Graves has only seen one, and that very
lOI
Sir Edwin Landseer
unfinished : it is in the etching state that the spaniel is
absent. This and his later "Alexander and Diogenes"
are perhaps the only pictures in which Landseer has
carried his so-called humanising of dogs perilously near
straining-point. Some malcontent writers, indeed, have
held that he often crossed over the border, but students
of dog life and character will beg leave to differ.
1 02
CHAPTER VII.
ROYAL FAVOUR.
The Queen's regard— Lessons in etching— Royal babies— Fancy balls
at the Palace — A guest at Balmoral — The Queen and the artist —
The influence of it all — Landseer in society — The Prince Consort
— The pig-dealer's dilemma — Landseer's hypersensitiveness —
Knighted — The Landseer Album compiled for Her Majesty.
From the day of her Accession to the end of his life,
Queen Victoria evinced a constant, an unwavering
admiration for Edwin Landseer's works, and
cherished a sincere regard for the man. ^
The Royal collection contains many of his y^BBns
pictures, admirably painted ; for during Bga^a
several years the commissions of her Majesty and the
Prince Consort kept him extremely busy.
He began by painting the pets of the Palace —
" Islay," a Scots terrier (a favourite subject), " Lorie,"
the macaw (capitally drawn, with due humour) which
Prince Albert brought over from Holland in 1836 as a
gift for the Princess Victoria, and spaniels, dachshunds,
and other dogs. Later, he was required to perpetuate
the features of trusted gillies and keepers. The year
before the Queen's marriage she assigned to him
the pleasant task of painting her portrait as a present
to Prince Albert.
103
Sir Edwin Landseer
To the Sovereign and her Consort Landseer was for
long persona graiisstma. Each independently of the other
made him a confidant on occasions of special interest.
As the Queen's birthday (May 24th) approached, the
Prince would arrange with him to paint a surprise
picture as a birthday gift ; and as the 26th of August
came within measurable distance a similar pretty
comedy would be performed by her Majesty, Landseer
being enjoined, in strictest confidence, to paint some-
thing for " the dear Prince." He taught both of them
how to etch, and, though they are exceedingly rare,
proofs are in existence of plates (after drawings by
Landseer) etched by his illustrious pupils. The " Hay
Waggon," by the Queen, is decidedly a clever piece of
work, in the manner which Sir Seymour Haden has
largely affected. Her Majesty etched other little plates
besides those after Landseer, but her Landseer ones
were the best. Mr. Algernon Graves states that on
the 2nd of July, 1842, Edwin etched in Buckingham
Palace, from recollection, a plate of " Islay Begging."
It occupied thirty minutes, and ten minutes more were
consumed by Thomas Landseer in biting it in, the
whole process being closely watched by her Majesty.
The press was erected under the superintendence of
Mr. Henry Graves, who was also present on the
occasion, and Mr. Holdgate did the printing. Every
one who witnessed the operation, or took an active part
in it, has since joined the Great Majority. Another
drawing of " Islay," in chalk, made in the same year,
long afterwards passed into the possession of the
104
Pictures for the Queen
Duke of Edinburgh. I have been told that Messrs.
Maclure & MacDonald were authorised to produce a
lithograph of it in colours, but it was such a perfect
copy of the original that his Royal Highness could not
sanction its publication. Landseer even made the
drawings, which Thomas etched, for her Majesty's
private note-paper.
By-and-by, when Royal babies began to arrive, it was
to Landseer that the fond parents turned for portraits
of the Princes and Princesses. And delight-
ful pictures they are, too. The painter ^.
worked on them with loving zeal, naturally
bent on justifying the patronage so lavishly bestowed.
A dog was generally introduced into the composition
with consummate skill. Doubtless, such eiforts do not
belong to the realm of high art, but taking them merely
on their merits, it would be impossible to praise them
too highly. If one were to select for special mention
any particular picture of this series, choice should fall
upon the painting of ' ' The Princess Alice with Eos "
(1844), an altogether charming rendering of the infant
in her cradle, guarded by a beautiful greyhound.
It will be remembered that early in the reign the
Queen and Prince Albert made a heroic effort to enliven
the Court by holding costume balls at
Buckingham Palace. At the function of ^
1842 her Majesty appeared as Queen
Philippa and her Consort as Edward III., and at that
of 1845 (dressed in the period of George II.) she
figured in fancy costume. Landseer painted pictures of
105
Sir Edwin Landseer
the Royal revellers on both occasions. It was in con-
nection with the latter entertainment (June 4th) that
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie recalled her first sight of the
great painter, although herself then too young to know
who he was. Thackeray drove his little daughter from
house to house, in order that she might behold the
ladies and gentlemen in all their picturesque bravery.
That night Landseer seemed to be ubiquitous, for in his
chivalrous way he had undertaken to officiate as artistic
adviser of the guests, and to touch up the ladies' com-
plexions with rouge and what not, to bring out more
fully the harmonies imperiously demanded by the
costumes of the historical figures which they sought
to impersonate. Landseer was going to the ball him-
self, and appears thoroughly to have enjoyed the post
of aesthetic counsellor to the fair women.
Her Majesty's esteem for the painter partook of the
nature of personal regard, one might truly say ot
friendship. For two successive autumns (1850 and 1851)
he was a guest at Balmoral, where his society and
accomplishments had a peculiar value. On the 30th of
September, 1850, her Majesty was present at a salmon
leistering, or spearing, on the Dee, and thought the
scene so exciting and picturesque she *' wished for
Landseer's pencil," — readers of Guy Mannering will
recall Sir Walter's graphic account of this form of
sport. When, on the 4th of September, i860, she made
an excursion to Glen Feshie, she alluded to it as " the
scene of all Landseer's glory." With the Prince
Consort he was able to organise shooting expeditions,
106
The Deer-book
or, when the weather was unpropitious, play billiards.
He accompanied the Queen on many of her walks,
helping her over the stiles and assisting
her in her sketches from nature. He made
a thorough examination of the Deer-book,
and found it admirably kept by her Majesty. No ledger
could have been more diligently posted. There was a
column for the date, another for the place, a third for
the results of the stalk, and, what gave Landseer
particular pleasure, whenever an exceptionally well-
antlered head was brought home, a drawing showing
all the "points " was sketched in by her Majesty with
great ease and taste. Nothing, indeed, seems to have
more favourably impressed Landseer, both at Balmoral
and Osborne, where he was also an honoured guest,
than the apple-pie order in which everything concerning
either art or sport was maintained. One of the very
last pictures upon which Landseer worked was the large
equestrian portrait of her Majesty, which was exhibited
in the Royal Academy in 1873. The Queen, life-size,
rides a white horse, and there is a dog on each side in
front. Though no sittings were given for this portrait
(which is now the property of Lord Cheylesmore), the
studies which Landseer utilised were made at Windsor
shortly after her marriage.
When he was engaged upon a picture in which her
Majesty was intimately interested, she did not hesitate
to aid and abet him, if thereby work might be facili-
tated and a profound secret preserved. Thus when
he painted an exquisite portrait of " Eos " (Royal
107
Sir Edwin Landseer
Academy, 1842), Prince Albert's favourite greyhound,
the Queen wished the Prince's hat and gloves to be in-
troduced into the composition, and sent them
^^, , to the studio for this purpose. Presently,
Majesty s „ ^,j -^^^^^^ ^nd spurred," on horse a-foam,
a groom rode up from the Palace. The
Prince had asked for these particular gloves and this
very hat, and must not discover that they had been
removed. On another occasion whilst an equestrian
portrait of her Majesty was in progress, either the one
that was not exhibited till the year in which Landseer
died, or the one which Sir J. E. Millais converted into
another subject — the Queen called at St. John's Wood
Road and waited at the door, while he changed his coat
and mounted a groom's horse to ride with her Majesty.
This was all managed on the initiative of the Queen,
who thought it might assist him in the picture.
These are not trifling details. It is necessary to
show that Landseer's relations with Royalty and "high
^■^■r ^ . life " generally were very far from being
WasRoyal r f • 1 f 4.1/ *• • , .
-^ purely professional, for the question in later
-^ years became acute as to the eifect upon the
-' man and his work of his Sovereign's con-
descension and the intimacy of the great. There seems
reason to believe that such close association was not
without a detrimental influence. The deference which
they paid him to some extent spoiled him. Un-
doubtedly he was proud of painting for the noblest in
the land on the footing of a friend, without thought of
fee or reward, for there never was anything mercenary
108
Courted by Society
in his disposition, and up till the period of his habitual
intercourse with the haut ton, and for years afterwards,
he was a charming and natural man, everybody's
favourite — a " most pleasant, lively companion," writes
Lord Wemyss. To the end his finer qualities were
never wholly eclipsed, but it was noticeable that,
wittingly or not, he had picked up a manner of speech,
the Society drawl of a bygone generation, which, in
him, appeared to be aifected, and the airs and graces —
the " side," as it is called — which he put on at times,
alienated some and wounded all of his old friends,
jealous for the man they loved. To be sure, it would
have demanded all the strength of a much stronger
man than even Landseer was to go through what he
experienced and come out unscathed. Yet there is no-
where so sad a sight as the deterioration of a man of
beautiful nature and shining qualities, partly through his
own weakness and partly through the selfishness of others.
Until the strain and stress of fashionable life did its
cruel work, however, Landseer was perfectly irresistible.
Mrs. Richmond Ritchie says his company
was '* a wonder of charming gaiety. I have . .
heard my father speak of it with the pride -^
he used to take in the gifts of others." When they
were girls she and her sister often went to the studio,
where tha artist painted whilst he joked with the illus-
trious novelist, and talked delightfully always. Her
I chief impression of him was of people cheering up as
I they saw him. She formulated, partly at haphazard, a
(theory which explains to some degree the time which
109
Sir Edwin Landseer
he gave to the society of the great. " Perhaps Edwin
Landseer," she writes, " was the first among modern
painters who restored the old traditions of a certain
sumptuous habit of living and association with great
persons. The charm of manner of which kind Leslie
spoke, put him at ease in a world where charm of
manner is not without its influence, and where his
brilliant gifts and high-minded scrupulous spirit made
him deservedly loved, trusted, and popular." " Land-
seer will be with us " was frequently the bait which
tempted others to join the social board. But the
ambition to emulate Rubens in the nineteenth century,
with its totally different environment, was perilous, and
Landseer sacrificed himself in the effort to revive the
grand style. However, his art suffered less than his
body and mind, and he paid the inevitable penalty.
To dine with Lord Hardinge, to attend a function at
Lord Londesborough's afterwards, and to wind up with
a " family hop " at Leslie's, shows how eagerly he was
sought after, how good-natured he was; but it also
made his nearest and dearest shake their heads at the
pity and the waste of it. Could the end of it all be
dark to those of his ain fireside, when he himself con-
cluded a letter declining another engagement because
his day's programme was already full, with these frank
but ominous words, " written, with my palette in the
other hand, in honest hurry ? "
Although proud of mixing on equal terms with the
great, it must not be supposed that he ever degenerated
into the mere diner-out and tuft-hunter. Even in really
no
Prince Albert
trying circumstances he usually contrived to preserve
his self-respect, which saved, a man must be a man for
a' that. During one of his numerous visits to Land-
seer's studio. Prince Albert lifted a picture which was
standing on the floor with its face to the
wall. Now, it is a strict rule, an unwritten „ .
law, of the studio that a picture so placed
must not be disturbed: for one reason or ''
another, it is a picture which the artist has withdrawn
from inspection for the time being. When the Prince
Consort raised the picture, Landseer told him of the
custom he had violated, and restored the canvas to its
place on the floor. The Prince expressed his regret for
the unintentional breach of etiquette and promised not
to offend again. Prince Albert was a man with a real
love of art, whose considerable services to Esthetics
and Education have never been appraised at their proper
value, in consequence of the unrestrained adulation
beneath which the measure and significance of his
work lie buried. He was, indeed, a greater man than
his flatterers imagined. His friendly regard for Landseer
throws an interesting light on the character of both.
No man is said to be a hero to his valet, but most
painters seem to be favourably regarded by their
models. Apropos of Landseer's relations pipwash
with her Majesty, Mr. Frith tells a funny , .^
story of a professional model named Bishop, Palace
who often sat to both artists, and evidently
thought that Landseer was all-powerful with the Queen.
To the vocation of model Bishop united the trade of
XII
Sir Edwin Lands eer
pig-dealer. He fattened porkers for market, and once
lamented, whilst sitting to Landseer, the hardness of
his lot. He had, he said, no end of trouble to get
enough " wash " for his pigs. Suddenly a happy
thought seized him.
"They tell me, sir, as you knows the Queen."
"Know the Queen?" answered Landseer. "Of
course, I do. Everybody knows her."
" Ah but," said Bishop, " to speak to, you know, sir,
comfortable."
"Well, I have had the honour of speaking several
times to her Majesty, quite comfortably. Why do you
ask?"
"You see, sir," explained the model-hog-merchant,
" there must be such lots of pigwash from Buckingham
Palace and them sort of places, most likely thrown
away ; and my missis and nje thinks that if you was just
to tip a word or two to the Queen — which is a real kind
lady one and all says — she would give her orders, and
I could fetch the wash away every week with my
barrer ! "
Landseer counted no warmer admirer than Queen
Victoria, but it would have been better for him had her
. f, Majesty not taken him up so enthusiastically.
nj J When he ceased to be invited regularly to
pass a holiday either in the Highlands or the
Isle of Wight, so little of a diplomatist was he that he
read into the incident much more than it was meant to
convey. We are assured that he felt so mortified that
he could not hide his vexation at what he chose to
112
' Shoeing the Bay Mare " (p. 125).
Knighthood
interpret as an undeserved slight. That was not the
gloss which a man of the world would have placed upon
a circumstance harmless in itself. The Sovereign can-
not continue to invite the same set of guests year in and
year out, and after the untimely passing of her Consort
it is known that her Majesty did not again receive
visitors, excepting her own relations and Cabinet
Ministers, and a few men and women who stood on
still more friendly terms than even Edwin Landseer.
This misunderstanding, if it ever existed, was most
unfortunate in the case of a super-sensitive man, but no
shadow of blame or responsibility for it can rest upon
the good name of the Queen. She was
always his friend, and gave public proof of Knighted
genuine admiration and esteem when in 1850
she conferred upon him the honour of knighthood.
Her Majesty's delight in Landseer's works never
waned during her long life. She possessed a remark-
able collection of engravings after his pictures, as well
as a complete photographic record of almost everything
he had done. This last took the form of an album,
which was prepared for the Queen by Mr. Algernon
Graves. The enterprise had an odd origin. It seemed
that Mr. Mann, an amateur photographer,
began to illustrate a copy of Mr. Graves's ,
catalogue on his own account with photo- ^
graphs of all the paintings and plates to
which he could get access. Presently he
came to a standstill, and was then told that the only
person who could help him was Mr. Graves. " He
113 I
Sir Edwin Landseer
said to a friend that he had always been afraid to
approach me," to quote the document which Mr. Graves
has placed at my disposal, "for fear I should charge
him with infringing- our copyright. His friend bade
him see me, when he would form another opinion, and
an introduction took place. I agreed to borrow all the
rarities from the different collectors, if he would give
me a copy of each of his photographs. I obtained all
I wanted from the Duke of Buccleuch and Mr. Stirling-
Crawfurd, but was still without many unique impres-
sions belonging to the Queen. However, her Majesty
was good enough to lend these. Yet the collection, I
reflected, would be imperfect unless I had the thirteen
precious etchings by the Queen and Prince Albert,
which had been so strictly guarded that the Prince
Consort actually began proceedings against Mr. C. G.
Lewis to recover two which had found their way into
his possession. At this stage I arranged that Mr.
Mann was to supply me with a second set of his
photographs, and then I informed her Majesty that I
was preparing an album for her of all Landseer's works,
but needed the Royal etchings to make it complete.
She had already lent them to me for the Exhibition ot
Landseer engravings which I organised after his death,
but it proved no easy task to prevail upon her to permit
them to be photographed. However, in the end the
Queen graciously consented. The whole set was royally
bound, and on the ist of April, 1878, I had the honour
of presenting the volume to her Majesty in the Corridor
at Windsor. The Queen — who was. accompanied by
114
Album for the Queen
the Princess Beatrice — turned over the leaves of the
book as I held it before her, making most interesting-
comments upon many of the pictures. After thanking
me her Majesty ordered the album to be placed in her
private sitting-room. It was afterwards taken to
Balmoral, where it remained until 1901, when it was
removed to the Library at Windsor Castle. I may add
that I hope my own set of the photographs may some
day find a home in the Print Room of the British
Museum. The third set, badly mounted and arranged
by Mr. Mann, was sold at his sale at Cardiff after his
death, when I bought all the negatives. As to Queen
Victoria's collection of Landseer engravings, under
Mr. Holmes I helped to make it the most complete in
existence. For this purpose I was commissioned to
purchase all the proofs which her Majesty did not
possess, at the sales of the Duke of Buccleuch and
Mr. Stirling-Crawfurd.''
11:
CHAPTER VIII.
A GLORIOUS AFTERMATH.
[1842-50.]
Dog and stag — Lord Wemyss on landscape effects — "The Sanctuary"
— Pathetic pictures — "Marmosets" — "My Wife" — Wall frescoes
that perished — Rat and dog fight — "The Rout of Comus" —
" The Otter Speared "— " Did you order a lion, sir ? "— " Shoeing
the Bay Mare "— Ruskin's lecture— " The Challenge "—Robert
Vernon— "The Lady with the Spaniels"—" The Cavalier's Pets"
— Lightning drawings — Billiards — " Peace " — " War " — " Van
Amburgh and his Animals " — ^The Iron Duke — " The Random
Shot," and other deer pictures — "A Dialogue at Waterloo"—
" The Lost Sheep."
If one were to express Landseer's work in terms of
animals, one might say that in the first half of his
Dnsr a iJ '^^''^^•' ^^^ ^°Z ^^^ predominant, in the
^.■V second the stag. Obviously, however, this
is a very broad generalisation, for, excepting
the cat, he drew all domesticated creatures with facility
and skill. Although the "wild" life of the British
Isles is limited both in variety and character, here, too,
he was "immense." His rendering of birds of prey,
and particularly of game birds, was masterly in the
extreme. At Redleaf several walls were lined with
examples of his cunning "from red deer to snipe."
116
Drawings of Game Birds
Whenever a pheasant, partridge, or wild-duck fell to
the sportsman's gun, "its attitude was carefully pre-
served by bits of moss and pebbles so that it might
stiffen in death, and thus become a true model for the
painter." This shows Mr. Wells's appreciation ot
Landseer's powers.
Lord Cheylesmore is the fortunate possessor of a
water-colour study of a cock grouse in articulo mortis,
which for exquisite workmanship will bear comparison
with the drawing of any other painter whatsoever, and
which is worthy of the careful notice of those who con-
sider that Landseer was little better than an anecdotist
or a scene-painter. The bird's head is just drooping to
the right, as it does in the act of dying, and the colour-
ing and drawing of plumage and other minuticB are
simply perfect. Landseer's otters and foxes were also
admirable, but he loved the whole deer tribe, and knew
it almost as thoroughly as he knew the dog. It was
abundantly clear that those animals which captivated
his affections roused him to display his utmost capacity.
Then, as a corollary, one might say as with animals,
so with the landscape in which they lived and moved
and had their being, I have already insisted j- j „ ^
upon Landseer's feeling for the scenery and tiTr-ffpff^"
even the climate of the Scottish Highlands,
and I am gratified to find this opinion corroborated by
the Earl of Wemyss, who knew Landseer intimately.
"At Glen Quoich," his Lordship writes to me, "Mr.
Ellice's shooting-lodge, beautifully placed by the beautiful
loch of that name, I met him frequently. No man had
117
Sir Edwin Landseer
a keener appreciation of the beautiful in Highland
scenery, and of what in Art parlance are termed 'effects.'
In the Highlands these are unequalled in beauty, and
it is especially at or towards dusk, when floundering
home after a long day on the hull [Gaelic-English for
hill], and possibly a failed stalk or drive, that these
effects cheered one's homeward way. Among his
sketches and studies there were endless gems which
he must, I am sure, have painted from fond memories.
The truth is that a landscape-painter, I am convinced,
could make his eye-memory photographic. By looking'
steadily at a fine landscape light-and-shade and cloud-
and-mist effect, and fixing it on his pictorial memory, a
man carries it home with him, and can there, while the
impression is fresh, reproduce the effect thus seen and
noted. Experto crede. Thus only can the effects of
passing clouds, lights and shadows, be fixed and
rendered. And it always amuses me to see, as I often
do here [Gosford House] by the shore, artists sit down
to draw carefully effects which have fled for ever before
the would-be painters thereof have had time to arrange
their stools and set to work. No; what landscape-
painters should above all things do is, make their
painting-minds, as I have said, photographic. Rightful
impressionism is the key to landscape-painting, and it
was thus, doubtless, that Turner got his wondrous
effects, and not by attempting to copy fleeting clouds."
But the division into dog period and stag period is a
very broad classification. There were constant over-
lappings. Just as he had painted stags ever since his
ii8
There's No Place like Home"
first tour in Scotland, so Landseer painted dogs to the
end of his days. In fact, his very last picture was a dog's
portrait. There were fine pictures of both ani- ^
mals in 1842. Although Ruskin speaks of „
"the misfortune of Landseer with his evening -^
sky," the golden glow diffused by the declining orb of
day harmonises with the pathos of "The Sanctuary"
(Royal Academy), representing a hunted stag seeking
refuge in the nick of time by swimming to an islet in
Loch Maree. This has always been a popular picture.
It was painted to the commission of Mr. Wells, but the
Queen fell in love with it, and the laird of Redleaf,
of course, at once relinquished his claim.
This was a year of pathetic pictures. "Be it ever
so Humble, There's No Place like Home" (British
Institution) tells the story of a truant t> j.r, f
terrier. Like the prodigal of the parable,
it had elected to go off on the rampage, but
becoming disillusionised, was only too glad to return to
its old quarters. This is the moment of the picture;
the wanderer looks upwards with a sigh of heartfelt
gratitude to be once more at its ain tub-kennel door. A
snail carrying its house on its back, as I have elsewhere
remarked, is a true Landseerian touch. "The Highland
Shepherd's Home" (Royal Academy) is a lowly interior,
where peace and happiness and a tenanted cradle blunt
the edge of " poortith cauld."
Queen Victoria commissioned the " Mar- ,, .,
Mar-
mosets " (Royal Academy), which Thomas „
Landseer's fine engraving made exceedingly
119
Sir Edwin Landseer
popular. A couple of pretty Brazilian monkeys, not
bigger than squirrels, crouch on a large pineapple and
gaze in wonderment and trembling at an intrusive
wasp.
One does not look for mysteries or conundrums in
Mr. Algernon Graves's catalogue, but in his list of the
1842 pictures there appears an item with the
A PuzBle strange title of " My Wife." This is a
portrait of Miss Power, the Countess of Bles-
sington's beautiful niece. As Landseer was a bachelor,
speculation arose whether such a title might not convey
a hint of romance and unrequited passion. On appeal,
Mr. Graves lent no sanction to my visionary fancies.
The title had, he said, nothing to do with matrimony.
The publishers issued a set of three prints, and as the
two others were called "My Horse" and " My Dog,"
Mr. Graves concluded that they described, the plate of
Miss Power as " My Wife " merely to bring in the word
" My " again. He thinks this is the correct theoryj but
it does not carry conviction to my mind. Still, in the
absence of evidence, all that can be said is that the title
is singular, mysterious, and suggestive of much. There
is in the Wallace Gallery, Hertford House, a crayon
portrait of Miss Power with a bird (1841).
In 1840 the Marquis of Abercorn, afterwards the
Duke, having obtained the land on lease from Cluny
tt;- „ Macpherson, built a shooting-lodge at Ard-
Ev. verikie, on the southern shore of Loch
Laggan, in Inverness-shire, far from the
madding crowd indeed, but in the heart of grand and
Frescoes Grave and Gay
wildly picturesque mountain scenery. Though a lodge
in a vast wilderness, it was a most desirable holiday
resort. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert occupied it
for a month in 1847. " Stags' horns," wrote her
Majesty in her Journal, "are placed along the outside
and in the passages ; and the walls of the drawing-room
and ante-room are ornamented with beautiful draw-
ings of stags by Landseer." In the course of time it
passed into the hands of Sir James Ramsden, and was
nearly wholly burned down on the isth of October,
1873. Thus those unique works by Landseer perished
just a fortnight after his own death. He had in 1842
frescoed two rooms (the "drawing-room and ante-room "
of the Queen's diary), as the Earl of Wemyss tells me,
with deer and sporting subjects, said to have been drawn
on the walls with red brick and burnt stick. It was
quite characteristic of the painter's mood for humour
to use such materials, and Lord Wemyss says that at
Ben Alder Lodge, on Loch Ericht, in the Laggan country,
Landseer made from memory, in an outburst of exuberant
fun, a fresco of him, then Lord Elcho, with strawberry
jam and mustard, which he never saw, and for the
likeness of which he is unable, therefore, to vouch.
Many years afterwards (October 8th, 1861) the Queen
went on an expedition to Glen Feshie, and there turned
aside into one of the shooting-huts that had belonged to
the Duchess of Bedford "to look at a fresco of stags
of Landseer's over a chimney-piece." There were
several similar frescoes, on paper, in his own house,
which were all sold at Christie's in 1874.
121
Sir Edwin Landseer
One of Landseer's best purely natural history pictures
was the "Otter and Salmon" (Royal Academy, 1842),
in which a snarling, snapping, suspicious otter is shown
by the side of a handsome salmon. The otter glances
viciously at a mate, as if in fear of disturbance — all
poachers seem alike — before falling to.
One Saturday in the winter of this year he ran down
to Redleaf for what is now termed a " week-end." He
r> . J had, he said, called at Buckingham Palace
D D- F' hf ^^f*""^ leaving London. He had with him
a toy terrier, a kind of dog that was then
much rarer than it is now. The Queen took a wonder-
ful interest in the tiny creature, and asked Landseer,
rather pointedly, as he thought, where such dogs were
to be bought. The painter did not take what he
believed was intended to be a hint, and left his Royal
mistress with the dog still in his pocket. At dinner he
dilated eloquently upon its skill as a ratter. The com-
pany, misled by the creature's insignificance, were,
perhaps not unnaturally, incredulous, and Landseer,
seeing that his veracity was under a cloud, offered to
match it there and then against a rat, if such vermin
could be found. It is never difficult to get a rat in
a country-house, and one was obtained without loss of
time. The company adjourned downstairs to witness
the combat. Though the rat was fully bigger than
the dog, the terrier displayed tremendous pluck. In
spite of several bites it held the rat at bay for at least
twenty minutes. Finally, though it failed to kill " its
man," the bystanders (of whom Frederick Goodall, who
"The Rout of Comus"
told me of the incident, was one) declared it had proved
its courage and saved its honour, and a bigger dog —
which had heard from outside the battle that was going
on, with the utmost anxiety to take the floor itself —
was called in to give the brave rat its coup de grdce.
Next day was Sunday, and, as usual, Landseer declined
pointblank to go to church. But he did not remain
idle, and produced a clever and vivid sketch of the
"Rat and Dog Fight," which was ultimately placed
in the Scribblers' Book. He had great ado to induce
the terrier to sit. It was bitter weather and the dog
shivered with cold, its nose watered, and the little
thing looked blue. But the painter persevered, and
the drawing was triumphantly achieved in time for the
delectation of the church party.
Next year Landseer was seen to remarkable advan-
tage in an altogether new vein. Queen Victoria having
determined to decorate the octagonal room
in the pavilion in the grounds of Bucking- '^ Comus"
ham Palace with a set of eight frescoes in
illustration of "Comus" — hence the summer-house is
sometimes known as Milton Villa, — Landseer undertook
to depict the "Rout of Comus." The study for the
subject, painted in 1843, is now in the National Gallery,
in London, having been bequeathed to the nation by
Mr. Jacob Bell. The swinish crew are rendered with
notable skill, and the composition justly takes high
rank as a sustained eifort of the imagination.
Two of the pictures of 1844 gave rise to much criticism
from different quarters, Ruskin making himself the
123
Sir Edwin Landseer
spokesman both of the humanitarians and the aesthetes.
The vigorous design of the "Otter Speared" (Royal
" OH Academy) — a huntsman holding aloft a spear
„ ,„ with an otter transfixed, and surrounded by
a band of frenzied hounds to which the
victim will by-and-by be flung — aroused the following
comment in Modem Painters (Part III., sec. i, chap,
xii.) : — " I know not of anything more destructive of the
whole theoretic \yulgo, aesthetic] faculty, not to say of
the Christian character and human intellect, than those
accursed sports of which man makes of himself cat,
tiger, serpent, chaetodon, and alligator in one, and
gathers into one continuance of cruelty for his amuse-
ment all the devices that brutes sparingly and at
intervals use against each other for their necessities."
With forthright fearlessness the Oxford Graduate points
the moral. " I would have Mr. Landseer," he writes,
" before he gives us any more writhing otters, or yelping
packs, reflect whether that which is best worthy of con-
templation in a hound be its ferocity, or in an otter its
agony, or in a human being its victory, hardly achieved
even with the aid of its more sagacious brutal allies,
over a poor little fish-catching creature, a foot long."
It were idle to labour the rebuke, but, however culpable
in this instance, Landseer hated cruelty to animals ; and
this unjust attempt to make him a scapegoat and to
treat him as by habit and repute a painter of such scenes
recoiled upon the author of it. The fact is, as his re-
marks apropos of " Shoeing " (Royal Academy), another
of Jacob Bell's bequests to the nation, amply demonstrate,
124
"Shoeing the Bay Mare"
Ruskin had now grown wholly out of sympathy with
Landseer. But before considering this further anim-
adversion, it will be of interest to add a personal note
with which the Earl of Wemyss has favoured me : — " One
day Landseer asked me to stand for the figure of the
man holding up the otter at the end of a spear in his
well-known otter-hunting picture, which I n r\-j
did. When thus sitting, or, more accurately ,
speaking, standing for him, his servant j. „ „
opened the door and said, ' Please, sir, did
you order a lion ? ' A man had brought a dead lion to
his door in some sort of conveyance, the bestial monarch
having died at the Zoo and been sent by the Zooites to
him." This explicit statement disposes of the notion
that this anecdote was of the ben trovato order and
invented by Charles Dickens.
"Shoeing the Bay Mare " has enjoyed much popularity.
It lends itself exceptionally well to translation, and
has been admirably engraved. The mare,
"Betty," belpnged to Jacob Bell, and the "Shoeing"
artist had been under promise to paint her
and her foal, but usually dallied until the foal became too
old for the purpose. Some time afterwards, as Mr.
Algernon Graves relates in his catalogue, on the
authority of "Betty's" owner, Landseer admired her
condition so much that he said to Mr. Bell, " I am deter-
mined to paint old ' Betty ' after all." A shoeing subject
being preferred, the rest was easy. Besides the mare and
the farrier, alleged to be a portrait of Jacob Bell, the other
occupants of the smithy were a donkey and a blood-
125
Sir Edwin Landseer
hound. Mr. Graves clears up a few misstatements.
" It has been reported," he says, " that the mare would
not stand to be shod unless in company with a donkey.
The truth is that the intimacy of the mare and the
donkey commenced in the studio, and was cemented on
the canvas. Another rumour states that the scene, as
painted, occurred in the forge of a country blacksmith,
where the mare was having a shoe fastened, and that
the painter was so pleased with the composition that
he made an elaborate sketch for the picture on the spot.-
Some critics have noticed the ' oversight ' of the mare
having no bridle or halter. This was not an oversight,
as she would stand to be shod or cleaned without being
fastened, but had a great objection to be tied up in a
forge or against a post or door. When this has been
attempted, she often started back with a sudden jerk
and broke the bridle. Other critics have remarked that
from the mode of painting the toe of the off fore foot,
the mare appears as if her weight rested on only two
legs. This was noticed before the painting was finished,
and she was placed in position several times for the
purpose of ensuring accuracy. In every instance she
placed the foot exactly in the position represented."
None of these points, however, touched the subject of
Ruskin's homily. "Again," he wrote, "there is capa-
bility of representing the essential characters, form and
colour of an object, without external texture. On this
point much has been said by Reynolds and others, and
it is, indeed, perhaps the most unfailing characteristic of
great manner in painting. Compare a dog of Edwin
126
Blame from Ruskin
Landseer with a dog of Paul Veronese. In the first the
outward texture is wrought out with exquisite dexterity
of handling, and minute attention to all the accidents of
curl and gloss which can give appearance of reality,
while the hue and power of the sunshine, and the truth of
the shadow on all these forms, is necessarily neglected,
and the large relations of the animal as a mass of
colour to the sky or ground, or other parts of the
picture, utterly lost. This is a realism at the expense
of Ideality, it is treatment essentially unimaginative.
With Veronese, there is no curling or crisping, no
glossiness nor sparkle, nor even hair ; a mere type of
hide, laid on with a few scene-painter's touches. But
the essence of dog is there, the entire, magnificent,
generic animal type, muscular and living, and with
broad, pure, sunny daylight upon him, and bearing his
true and harmonious relation of colour to all colour
about him. This is ideal treatment." {Modem Painters,
Part III., sec. 2, chap. iv.). A dog that never was on
sea or land is undoubtedly ideal. But " essence of
dog" is good, reminding one of the "this is a cow" of
nursery pictures, and Paul Veronese's "scene-painter's
touches " may be commended to Landseer's detractors.
Still Ruskin's memory of his own writings was acute
enough, and he had to save a certain situation. So he
resumes : " I do not mean to withdraw the praise I have
given, and shall always be willing to give such pictures
as • The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner,' and to all in
which the character and inner life of animals are
developed. But all lovers of animals must regret to
127
Sir Edwin Lands eer
find Mr. Landseer wasting his energies on such inanities
as 'Shoeing,' and sacrificing,. colour, expression and
action, to an imitation .of glbSsy hide." Elsewhere he
takes up the parable again'i. "In our modern treatment
of the dog, of which the prevailiijg tendency is marked
by Landseer, the interest taken in him is dispro-
portionate to that taken in man, ajid leads to a
somewhat trivial mingling of sentiment, or warping by
caricature ; giving up the true nature of 'the" animal for
the sake of a pretty thought or pleasant jest. Neither
Titian nor Velasquez ever jests ; and though Veronese
jests gracefully and tenderly, he never for an instant
oversteps the absolute facts of nature. But the English
painter looks for sentiment or jest primarily, and
reaches both by a feebly romantic taint of fallacy,
excepting in one or two simple and touching pictures,
such as 'The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner '"' (Part
IX., chap, vi.) Clearly, Landseer had got on Ruskin's
nerves. The early eulogy of the immortal discourse
remains, for the reader ; but the preacher's point of view
had changed; perhaps, too, Landseer had worked too
persistently in one genre. Still, it does look like a
great tribute, unwillingly extorted, to see the renowned
names of Titian, Velasquez, and Paul of Verona gravely
cited in censure of a solitary tendency of Landseer's art.
Landseer painted the stag and deer in many attitudes
,, — in mortal combat, in peaceful pasture, in
„ flight, in unadorned grandeur and majesty,
Challenge j^ ^j^^ pathos of death— but he never sur-
passed "The Challenge" (Royal Academy, 1844), or,
1 28
Robert Vernon
as it has sometimes been named, "Coming Events
cast their Shadows before them." Simple and direct,
this forcibly-drawn figure bellowing, beneath the star-
studded sky, defiance to its fast-approaching rival,
foretells fight ai outrance.
To the honoured names of John Sheepshanks and Jacob
Bell must here be added that of Robert Vernon,
another benefactor of the British nation. r, i, j.
Mr. Vernon, in the course of a successful
career as a horse-dealer, had amassed a ^
large fortune, much of which was devoted to the
purchase of pictures. He followed his own bent in his
selection, and fortunately his taste was attracted by
Landseer. When, in 1847, he gave his pictures to the
nation the collection included several of Landseer's
most noteworthy works. It is remarkable that this
noble trio were all business men, all amateurs, and all
consumed with a desire to promote the greatest
happiness of the greatest number by presenting their
pictures to their fellow-countrymen rather than see
them vanish, through the auction-room, into private
hands. It would be interesting to know what was
the total sum of money thus voluntarily surrendered.
There is a portrait of Robert Vernon in the Tate
Gallery by H. W. Pickersgill, R.A. He nurses a King
Charles spaniel. Landseer oflfered to paint in the little
creature. It is a pity the artist declined his help, for
his own dog is a poor wooden apology for the animal
that Sir Edwin would have drawn. As it happened^
Mr. Vernon was a fancier of these spaniels, and in 1838
129 K
Sir Edwin Lands eer
commissioned Landseer to paint a picture in which two
of his pets were to be introduced, at the same time
drawing a cheque for the fee. Years lapsed before
this contract was fulfilled, and the story of the picture is
quite romantic.
As at first planned, Miss Power had agreed, to sit
and toy with the spaniels. For a long time the painter
, made little headway, in consequence probably
-'^ of his not being satisfied with his rendering
,, of the lovely lady, the heroine of " My
spaniels -y^ifg .. already mentioned. Vernon, who
thought the picture in progress, was astounded one day
at seeing an engraving of it in McLean's window in
the Haymarket Qune 24th, 1842). On inquiry he
learned that, though unfinished, it was in a sufficiently
forward state for engraving, and that Thomas McLean
had accordingly arranged to publish it. This was the
first intimation Vernon had received even of the
intention to engrave, and Landseer was written to.
The artist, however, temporised, saying he would
deliver the picture when it was ready. In the mean-
time the painting had not escaped criticism, and the
artist grew vexed and resolved never to touch it again.
Vernon was justly incensed at the turn things had
taken, but his nephew, Mr. Vernon Heath, afterwards
the well-known photographer of Piccadilly, determined
to see Landseer and heal the breach. When, however,
he found that it was really distasteful to Landseer to go
on with the picture, he persuaded him to paint another
one for his uncle for the forthcoming exhibition at the
130
Wonderful Dexterity
British Institution in 1845. Sending-in day came, but
no picture. Instead, an empty frame arrived at the
gallery, along with a message that the canvas for it
would be delivered in time. The Hanging Committee
had ended their labours without a sight of the picture,
and Varnishing Day was at hand. Heath dashed off
to Landseer's studio, where the artist pointed to a
canvas on the easel and promised to send it that night
to the Institution a finished picture. The promise was
kept and the picture reached the gallery in ^l ti,
time to be fitted to its frame. It now hangs ,
in the National Gallery in London, where it „
bears the title of "The Cavalier's Pets." ^*^
It was painted in two days, and is a crowning example
of Landseer's dexterity. It may be doubted whether
the ostrich feather in the gallant's hat could have been
more exquisitely rendered had he taken two months.
Considering the singular circumstances of the case, it
is altogether inexplicable how Mr. F. G. Stephens came
to ascribe the picture to 1832, — thirteen years before it
was conceived ! Mr. Heath says that both doggies
came to a violent end in their master's house. The
Blenheim fell from a table, and the King Charles
spaniel fell between the railings of the staircase.
Nevertheless, Landseer did finish the original picture
of "The Lady with the Spaniels" (in 1842), in spite of
his vow to the contrary. The Queen and Prince Albert
called at his studio one day, and whilst her Majesty
talked with the painter, the Prince Consort looked at
the pictures. Presently he discovered "The Lady with
131
Sir Edwin Landseer
the Spaniels," and Landseer told him the whole story of
the unfortunate canvas. The Prince, though sympa-
thising, pressed him to complete the picture for him,
undertaking to send it out of the country, so that the
painter might never set eyes on it again. The Queen,
it seemed, was anxious to make a present to King
Leopold, and this picture was "just the thing." Land-
seer gave way, and the canvas was finished and sent
over to the King of the Belgians. Landseer had yielded
in regard to it once; after his death his humour
perhaps did not count. But it was out of no disrespect
for his memory that King Leopold sent the picture to
the Landseer Exhibition in 1874.
Besides "The Cavalier's Pets," other well-authenti-
cated instances of rapid workmanship, most of which
have already been mentioned in other con-
J^ ^f^^ nections, include "Trim" (1831), the spaniel
*^ with rabbit, painted in two and a half hours ;
Mr. Jacob Bell's "Countess" ("The Sleeping Blood-
hound," 1835), painted in three days; "Odin" (British
Institution, 1836), a dog belonging to Mr. W. Russell,
in twelve hours; "Deerhound and Mastiff" (? British
Institution, 1838), in a few hours; "William, 2nd
Lord Ashburton" (1841), at one sitting (still at The
Grange, Alresford); "Islay Begging" (1842), etched in
half-an-hour in presence of Queen Victoria; "The
Shepherd's Bible" (1849), two collies, within two days;
"Lambkin" (1851), a favourite dog of the Duchess of
Kent, at Windsor Castle during church service; .
"Dackel" (1851), a dachshund belonging to Queen
132
At Ardington
Victoria and Prince Albert, at Windsor Castle during a
lesson to her Majesty; "Jacob Bell, Esq." (1859), "at
one painful sitting a few days before his death;"
"William Wells, Esq., of the Holme Wood, Hunting-
donshire," in a few hours (Lady Louisa Wells recollects
the occasion, and puts it at four hours). Mr. Conrad
Cooke, son of E. W. Cooke, R.A., tells me that he
used to hold the paper whilst Landseer drew one animal
with his right hand and a different animal with his left.
This species of dexterity comes with practice, no doubt,
and is akin to the adroit manipulation of the accom-
plished pianist, but it is nevertheless extraordinary, and
several cases are recorded in which Sir Edwin fairly
astounded the onlookers by such displays of manual
skill. Two instances of well-applied facility are related
by Mr. Vernon Heath. Once whilst staying at Arding-
ton House, Mr. Robert Vernon's place near Wantage,
Landseer consented to go to church. At luncheon he
was asked who had preached.
" Really, I don't know; but it was some one like this,"
and he sketched the priest in a few adroit strokes.
"Why, that's Mr. Blank," said Mr. Vernon Heath.
" His living is nine miles off, and I don't think he has
ever preached here before. I know him only from
seeing him at a meet of the old Berkshires. But that's
the man, sure enough."
At Ardington a billiard-table stood in the hall, and one
day during a game, Landseer went across to the black-
board which screened the grate and drew upon it in
chalk a life-size head of a royal stag. When Mr.
133
Sir Edwin Lands eer
Vernon saw it he was so enchanted that he had a sheet
of plate-glass placed over the board, which he forbade
being taken to the hall any more. Billiards,
Billiards like chess, is a game at which even the dearest
friends fall out, only to make it up, as a
rule, when the cues have been restored to their rack
or case. Once, however, in a game which he played at
Redleaf with Frederick R. Lee, R.A., a hot dispute arose
which ended in permanent estrangement between the
latter and Landseer, till then firm friends. It was the
customary charge of fluking and the equally customary
denial that provoked the sorry quarrel.
Landseer's force as a moralist was amply vindicated
by "Peace" and "War," two of his very noblest paint-
ings, which, by the grace of Mr. Vernon,
"Peace" are happily the property of the British
nation. Both were exhibited at the Royal
Academy in 1846, and now hang together in the Tate
Gallery. The scene of "Peace" is laid on the chalk
downs above Dover. Calm prevails everywhere : a
quiet Channel with its slight heat haze shows that the
steam packet just clearing the harbour will make an
easy trip to la Belle France. Sheep and goats graze
idly. A lamb peers inquisitively up the muzzle of a
dismounted cannon, rusty from weather and long
disuse. Children play at cat's cradle. Sunshine and
happiness suffuse all the tranquil scene. It is an
admirable picture, beautifully painted, and one is thank-
ful that the artist, greatly daring, had the courage to
associate the idyl with the white cliffs of "perfidious
134
The Lion-Tamer
Albion." Nor is the companion picture less telling,
less valuable in its remorseless rendering of the horrors
of "War." The dead troopers, the dying
frantic horses, the ruined hut, the lurid "War"
flames and smoke, bear eloquent testimony
to the havoc and madness of battle. This is the true
aspect of warfare, too seldom depicted by painters, who
have generally shown a culpable facility for delineating
the more theatrical side — the clash and tumult and
glory of crashing regiments. All honour to Landseer
for these two great works !
Probably every artist receives a singular commission
at times, which he is at liberty to decline if he chooses.
It will partly depend upon the patron, partly ^^
upon the subject, whether he will undertake
it or not. In 1847 Landseer accepted a f
commission from the Duke of Wellington which was
one of the strangest subjects ever given to a painter.
This was "Van Amburgh and his Lions." He had
painted the subject eight years before for Queen
Victoria, and it is possible that his Grace thought her
Majesty's example was good enough for him. Van
Amburgh was a tamer who was in the habit of ex-
hibiting his skill to audiences at Astley's Theatre and
elsewhere. Landseer showed him life-size inside the
cage, the lions and tigers well under control. It was
an uninspiring subject treated accordingly. The Iron
Duke hung it in his Library at Apsley House, in a
great frame, surmounted with a text from the ist
chapter of Genesis,- where it is recorded that the
135
Sir Edwin Landseer
Creator gave man dominion over "every living thing
that moveth upon the earth."
This picture once formed a topic of talk at Mr. Frith's
hospitable board. Frith often entertained Landseer,
and soon noted his unfortunate habit of unpunctuality.
Disrelishing that the ladies of the company should be
kept waiting, Mr. Frith resolved to teach Landseer a
lesson. At the next dinner the guests sat down at the
appointed hour, and the banquet was half over when
Sir Edwin turned up with profuse apologies for un-
avoidable delay. Ever afterwards he was amongst
the earliest to appear at the Friths', and had bettered
his instructions so thoroughly that, watch in hand,
he rebuked any late comer whom he happened to
know.
"Look here," he cried, "there is no rudeness equal
to that of keeping ladies waiting for their dinner."
After-dinner talk turning upon the question of greed
as a vice of old age, Landseer warmly
vindicated the Duke of Wellington, then
alive, from the aspersion of avarice.
" Whoever says that knows nothing of the Duke,"
he began. ' ' I know him well, and he is the very
reverse of avaricious. When his Grace inquired the
price of my picture of 'Van Amburgh,' I named 600
guineas, but the Duke drew a cheque for double that
amount. And I could tell you many more instances of
his liberality." There is a story that Wellington gave
Sir William Allan jQi200 for his large canvas of the
" Battle of Waterloo," now in Apsley House. He paid
136
The Duke of Wellington
him in hard cash, and when the painter begged for a
cheque, to save his Grace both time and trouble, the
old soldier demurred. " D'ye think I'm going to let
Coutts's know that I've been such a damned fool ? "
The version that makes this anecdote turn upon Sir
David Wilkie's " Chelsea Pensioners " is incredible.
Wellington was undoubtedly fond of art, and
attended exhibitions diligently. He had one delusion.
He believed he knew every picture in his gallery at
Apsley House. He certainly knew the catalogue by
heart, and so long as the pictures were shown in
sequence could name them ; but when asked a
question about a picture out of its turn, so to speak,
he was quite at sea. Landseer once asked him whom
a portrait of a sour-looking woman of the later Tudor
period represented. His Grace mumbled something
and left the room. Presently when Landseer had
almost forgotten the incident, a whisper, sotto voce,
fell on his ear — " Bloody Mary! "
In 1847 Landseer began another otter picture —
"Digging out the Otter." He made no headway
with it, however, the subject possibly not attracting
him, and when he died twenty-three years later it was
still unfinished. Uncompleted as it was, at the great
sale of his works at Christie's (May 8th, 1874) it
fetched ;^640 los. Messrs. Agnew, the purchasers,
commissioned Millais to put in the figures, thereby
enhancing its value so much that, in another sale at
Christie's only seven years afterwards (May 1881), it
actually realised £2^91 'os.
137
Sir Edwin Landseer
Of all the deer pictures of the later 'forties — including
the famous " Stag at Bay" (Royal Academy, 1846) and
, " The Drive of Deer in Glen Orchy " (Royal
Academy, 1847), painted for the Marquis of
Random greadalbane (who derives his title of Baron
of Glenorchy from the wild glen), by whom
it was presented to the Prince Consort — there was none
finer than, none so touching as "The Random Shot"
(Royal Academy, 1848). A doe, mortally wounded,
has wandered to a snow-clad height in search of water.
At last the! poor thing falls dead. Her fawn has followed,
and vainly seeks nourishment at the wonted source.
Ruskin gave it praise in no unstinted terms, holding
that it offered a "very beautiful exception" to Land-
seer's "falseness or deficiency of colour." He said
that it was " certainly the most successful rendering of
the hue of snow under warm but subdued light " that
he knew of. "The subtlety of gradation from the
portions of the wreath fully illumined," he continued,
"to those which, feebly tinged by the horizontal rays,
swelled into a dome of dense purple, dark against the
green evening sky, the truth of the blue shadows, with
which this dome was barred, and the depth of delicate
colour out of which the lights upon-the footprints were
raised, deserved the most earnest and serious admira-
tion ; proving, at the same time, that the errors in
colour, so frequently to be regretted in the works of
the painter, are the result rather of inattention than
of feeble perception." {Modem Painters, Edition of
1873, vol. ii., p. 220.)
138
A Noble Trio
The painful pathos of this picture, however, was re-
lieved by "Alexander and Diogenes" (Royal Academy,
1848), one of Landseer's most masterly ^
dog subjects. A shaggy terrier in a tub
. ., ... / J ., . under and
personates the philosopher, and the im- „
perious king is typified by a domineering °
white bull-terrier. A couple of bloodhounds, steeped
in loftiest disdain, represent the goldsticks-in-waiting.
A greyhound wag retails the latest Court scandal
to the credulous spaniel courtiers. It is a delicious
picture, drawn with verve, and painted with great
gusto. Jacob Bell bequeathed it to the British nation,
and it now adorns the Tate Gallery. A beautiful portrait
of his old father, "John Landseer, Esq., A.R.A.,"
completed a distinguished Academy trio.
In 1850, the year in which Landseer was knighted,
he exhibited at the Royal Academy a picture which
was once a special favourite and was pre- ^
sented to the nation by Mr. Vernon three ,"
years before it was finished — that is, whilst
it was still under commission. This was "A Dialogue
at Waterloo," representing the great Captain describ-
ing on the field the course of the battle to Lady Douro,
his daughter-in-law. The portrait of his Grace is an
excellent portrait of the Duke as he was in his old age.
Mr. Algernon Graves states that David Roberts, R.A.,
stood for the Belgian farmer. Of the portrait of the
Marchioness of Douro, Mr. Frith heard Wellington say
to Miss (afterwards the Baroness) Burdett-Coutts, to
whom he was explaining the picture, "That's quite
139
Sir Edwin Landseer
shocking. " Sir Edwin admitted the blunt impeachment,
but added, " I wonder the Duke is any better, for he
only sat for half-an-hour." On the other hand, Mr.
Graves says that his father, who published the plate,
told him that the Iron Duke took the utmost interest
in the picture and sat often.
Knighthood happily synchronised with another noble
example of his powers, also exhibited at the Royal
^ Academy in 1850. This was "The Lost
„ ^ Sheep," painted in illustration of the Saviour's
^■^ parable (Luke xv. 4): "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 oblong
canvas represented a Highland shepherd, in his " tartan
plaidie," extricating sheep from the mass of snow
that has overwhelmed them — a curious variant of the
"wilderness" of the text — several collies assisting him
in his work of charity. Mr. Graves says the picture
was painted for Mr. E. Bicknell, who gave 250 guineas
for it without the copyright, and was sold at Christie's,
on the 25th of April 1863, for ;^234i los. It passed
into the keeping of Sir John Pender, and at the sale of
his collection at Christie's in 1897 fetched ;^3iSo.
140
CHAPTER IX.
GOLD MEDALLIST.
[1850-57.]
Strange scene at a dinner-party — Dickens disguised — With D'Orsay
at Madame Tussaud's — Election of Sir Charles Eastlake to the
Presidency of the Royal Academy — Legislators in a temper — "The
Monarch of the Glen "— " Oberon and Titania "— " The Deer
Pass"— "Night"— "Morning"— "Children of the Mist"— "The
Twins" — Landseer is awarded the great Gold Medal at Paris —
" Saved "— " Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale "— " Braemar "—
" Browsing '' — William Wells of Holme Wood.
Though Landseer was regarded in many quarters as
something of a courtier, he shared the artists' love for
good-fellowship and Bohemianism. He was
on the friendliest terms with Charles Dickens, .
frequently visiting at the latter's house in ^ ^^^
Devonshire Terrace, Regent's Park, where he was sure
of meeting kindred spirits. John Forster mentions one
singular dinner-party, on the i8th of April 1849, at which
the company passed from the depths of alarm and anxiety
to the heights of uproarious mirth. Curiously enough,
first Samuel Rogers and then Julius Benedict, the com-
poser, were taken suddenly ill. As the poet fell sick
first he monopolised most of the household help, but
by-and-by both patients came round, seemingly not a
141
Sir Edwin Landseer
penn'orth the worse for their indisposition. During
dinner there had been some talk, not unmingled with
indignation, about certain recent pauper-farming dis-
closures at Tooting. The guests now saw their way
to improve the occasion, and pretended that, what with
bad food and insufficient nursing, Dickens himself was
no better than a pauper-farmer. Albany Fonblanque
set the joke a-going, and the banter was kept up by
Landseer, Lord Strangford, and the rest, the night
ending in hearty hilarity. A few weeks later (June 29th)
it is on record that Landseer went, along with Dickens,
Mr. Justice Talfourd, and Clarkson Stanfield, to Vauxhall
Gardens to see the " Battle of Waterloo," a tedious
affair, which was nevertheless witnessed on the same
night by the Iron Duke, with Lady Douro on his arm.
X)ickens, it will be recollected, was bare-faced during
the earlier part of his life. He then began to sport
a moustache, not to the approval of his friends. When
John Forster commissioned W. P. Frith, R.A., to paint
the novelist's portrait, he begged the artist to put off
the work until Dickens should get sick of his new-
fangled ornament and remove it. But the day of
disgust never came, and offence was aggravated by his
growing a beard as well. . It was when thus successfully
disguised that Landseer called upon him one day.
After a while Boz said to the painter, "But you don't
tell me how you like it."
" Like what? " inquired Landseer.
"All this," exclaimed Dickens, as he flowingly stroked
his beard.
142
"The Last of the Dandies"
" Oh," quoth his friend, " / like it very much. I
shall see less of you than ever."
Another great contemporary was also very fond of
Landseer and delighted in his company. This, I have
already mentioned, is the testimony of Thackeray's
daughter, Mrs. Richmond Ritchie, which she has, I
may add, kindly impressed upon me.
Count D'Orsay, "the last of the dandies," was for
many years on a very familiar footing with Landseer,
who looked upon his friend's peccadilloes
with a lenient eye, and helped him cheat the
bailiffs on a memorable occasion. The ex- -^
travagant but gifted Count was a portrait-painter of no
mean skill, and had drawn an equestrian portrait of
Queen Victoria, which was so generally admired that
it was decided to publish an engraving of it. In con-
sequence of his spendthrift habits, however, he was in
constant danger of arrest for debt. When this risk was
imminent his lot was not a happy one. On week-days
he had to remain a close prisoner to his place. Gore
House in Kensington, Sunday being the only day when
he was free to go out of doors without let or hindrance.
The plate of the Queen was finished at such a crisis
in his affairs, but the publisher would not accept it
without the artist's final "touching." D'Orsay could
not stir out, and the engraver pointblank declined to
transact business on Sunday (but could he not have gone
to the painter's on a week-day?), and till the plates were
passed the Count would get no money. In this dilemma
he consulted Landseer, who advised him to disguise
143
Sir Edwin Landseef
himself and go to the engraver's, taking the risk of
capture. A morning was fixed for the venture, D'Orsay
to breakfast with Landseer. The escape was success-
fully effected, and the Count enjoyed a very merry
breakfast in St. John's Wood Road. The plate was
gone over carefully, and then D'Orsay, having tasted
the sweets of liberty, proposed they should adjourn to
some place of entertainment. Landseer said he didn't
know where they could go at noon unless they visited
Madame Tussaud's.
"The very thing," quoth D'Orsay, "for I've never
seen the wax-works."
No sooner said than done, but whilst they were in the
rooms the Count saw with alarm that two men were
watching them very vigilantly. At last he disclosed his
fears to Landseer, and suggested they should retire to
the Chamber of Horrors, whither they retreated at once.
By-and-by they found that the two men had followed
them even there, and soon one of the strangers came up
and inquired whether he had the honour of addressing
Count D'Orsay. The Count haughtily admitted the
fact. Then the man told his mission. He had, he said,
been sent by Madame Tussaud to ascertain whether he
would consent to being modelled in wax.
" In wax," cried D'Orsay, greatly relieved at the
unexpected turn of events, " in marble, bronze, or iron,
my good fellow. Tell her, with my love, that she may
model me in anything."
Still, the volatile Count's disguise had been pene-
trated, and Mr. Frith, who related the adventure on
144
Sir Charles Eastlake
Landseer's own authority, does not say whether
D'Orsay returned to his lair in safety, though one may
suppose that he contrived to avoid the myrmidons on
his track. In point of fact, he never was caught, but
ultimately reached Boulogne, where duns and bailiffs
ceased from troubling and the weary were at rest.
Sir Martin Archer Shee died on the igth of August,
1850, and thus the Presidentship of the Royal Academy
fell vacant. Though one vote was actually ,-.,,,
cast for Landseer, the choice of the painters r, -d J
fell with practical unanimity upon Charles
Lock Eastlake, on the 4th of November. The new
P.R.A. and his henchman were knighted in the same
year. Landseer, indeed, had played an important part
in the election. * During a visit to Balmoral he learned
that the Queen and Prince Albert were most anxious —
they said "they hoped" — that Eastlake should become
President. It was notorious that he was very averse
from accepting the office, and it therefore occurred to
Landseer that such an expression of opinion from her
Majesty and her husband could not but carry great
weight with him. Sjr Charles Phipps, the Queen's
private secretary, wrote a letter ad hoc, which Landseer
forwarded to C. R. Leslie. This proved effective. Leslie
sent the note to Eastlake just before the election, asking
him not to answer it unless he were ready to say "Yes."
A few members afterwards complained that Royal
pressure had been used in Eastlake's favour. There
was, however, nothing of the kind — throughout her
long and illustrious reign Queen Victoria was most
HS L
Sir Edwin Landseer
scrupulous in such matters always, — the fact being that,
excepting Edwin and Charles Landseer and C. R.
Leslie, nobody knew anything whatever of Sir Charles
Phipps's letter prior to the voting.
In this year H.M. Commissioners on the Fine Arts,
who had been appointed in 1841 to deal with the whole
,, y,, question of the internal decoration of West-
Tir 7 minster Palace, proposed that Sir Edwin
Monarch , , , , , . , . . ...
, ., should be authorised to pamt m ou three
"Lj „ subjects connected with the chase, to adorn
panels in the Peers' Refreshment Room,
at a price of ;£^iSoo for the set. The artist con-
sented to accept the fee, but the House of Commons,
annoyed at what it deemed its cavalier treatment at the
hands of Government, struck the amount out of the esti-
mates, expressing at the same time their highest opinion
of the painter's talent. As one consequence of this fit
of temper, the majestic " Monarch of the Glen" (Royal
Academy, i85i)^-perhaps, in his brother's splendid en-
graving, the most generally popular of all Landseer's
stag subjects — passed into private hands. A splenetic
vote is seldom justifiable, least of all at the expense of a
wholly innocent person, as well as of the nation.
Following the lead of Queen Victoria with " Comus,"
L K. Brunel^the illustrious engineer who designed and
built the Great Eastern, and laid the Great Western
Railway — commissioned a number of artists to paint a
series of subjects from Shakespeare, the fee for each
picture to be 400 guineas. Obviously, the theme for
Landseer was the scene from "A Midsummer Night's
146
"Night" and "Morning"
Dream," in which Titania is enamoured of the translated
weaver. The donkey's head, the white rabbits, and
the fairy accessories were all excellently ^^
rendered, though as an effort of Fancy the ^^
picture is overshadowed by the exuberant . „
imagery of Sir Noel Paton's famous com-
positions of the ' ' Quarrel " and ' ' Reconciliation of
Oberon and Titania," in the National Gallery in Edin-
burgh. The " Midsummer Night's Dream" was shown
at the Royal Academy in 1851, the year of the first
great International Exhibition.
This was a period during which Sir Edwin's devotion
to deer subjects was active and strong. Besides the
picture lost to the nation through the pique ^ ,
of the Commons, there were "The Deer „
Pass" (British Institution, 1852), the set of p. .
seven water-colours drawn to illustrate his
work on " The Forest," and the three vigorous and
characteristic pictures of " Night," " Morning," and
"Children of the Mist," which all graced the Royal
Academy in 1853. As a rule, Landseer was extremely
happy in the choice of titles for his works, as these
pages have repeatedly testified, but "Night" and
"Morning" convey no hint of their subjects, which
were painted to the commission of Lord Hardinge. In
the former two stags are shown engaged in mortal
combat by the side of a mountain tarn under the fitful
beams of the moon ; in the latter we see that the issue
has been fatal, for the antlers of both animals having
become inextricably interlocked, they were doomed to
147
Sir Edwin Landseer
perish miserably. Mr. Algernon Graves mentions that
Sir Edwin received more complimentary notes about
the poetic " Children of the Mist " than about any other
of his pictures, and that Thomas Landseer thought it
his best plate. Indeed, all three lost nothing in their
translation at the hands of this industrious and
most talented engraver. On the pretty picture of
„ ™, " The Twins " (Royal Academy, 1853),
rp ■ „ two gracefully-painted lambkins with their
mother, Mr. Graves gives an interesting
note. When the London and North- Western Railway
Company offered Mr. Robert Stephenson, their famous
engineer, a service of plate, the beneficiary ventured to
propose a picture by Sir Edwin instead. Landseer,
remarking that this was the first time he had ever heard
of such a preference, said, " He shall have a good
one." The Company seem to have appreciated Mr.
Stephenson's common-sense, for they added to this
another picture by Clarkson Stanfield, R.A., of " Wind
against Tide — Tilbury Fort."
Ruskin had declared in an early volume of Modern
Painters that Landseer's reputation on the Continent
The Gre t ^^^ farther extended than that of any other
^ J, British artist. Whether this were so or not,
Medal of ^^ gained signal distinction at the Universal
„ ■ Exposition which was held in Paris in 1855.
The Fine Arts jury comprised seventy
representatives from all parts of the civilised globe,
Count de Morny being their President, and Lord Elcho
(afterwards the Earl of Wemyss) Vice-President. To
148
Visit to Paris
Sir Edwin the jury awarded the great gold medal, and
he was the only British painter thus honoured. He was
represented at the Exhibition by his picture of ' ' The
Sanctuary," but it was doubtless his long series of
brilliant works, and not this particular painting, that
weighed with the jury. Mr. F. G. Stephens, who
wrongly dates the Exposition in 1853, asserts that
many Englishmen favoured the claims of Mulready,
and were at a loss to account for the jury's choice. We
think this judgment of Paris needs neither defence nor
apology. For more than thirty years prior to the date
of their decision Landseer had poured forth a vast
number of pictures of the very highest class in their
kind, which were known everywhere through the extra-
ordinary popularity of beautiful engravings, and the
merits of which had been universally recognised, and
it would have been remarkable if the jury had passed
them by. Sir Edwin was then at the top of his vogue,
and the compliment, unique as it was, was richly
deserved in itself, without provoking odious com-
parisons. Landseer went over to see the Exhibition.
Dickens was living in Paris at the time, and the two
chums forgathered again. The author of A Tale of
Two Cities (then possibly germinating) held that, as
compared with French, the British art at the Exposi-
tion was "small, drunken, insignificant, 'niggling.'"
There was, he said, " no end of bad pictures among
the French, but, lord ! the goodness also ! — the fearless-
ness of them ; the bold drawing ; the dashing concep-
tion; the passion and action in them." John Forster
149
Sir Edwin Landseer
states that these were also the sentiments of Landseer,
" whose praise of Horace Vernet was nothing short of
rapture." On the prize-giving day Napoleon III. shook
Landseer by the hand and greeted him warmly in
English, " I am very glad to see you." The Emperor
stood in a recess " so arranged as to produce a clear
echo of every word he said, and this had a startling
effect." In the evening Sir Edwin dined in the Palais
Royal along with Dickens, Boxall, and Leslie, "and
three others."
It was in this same year that Landseer witnessed a
performance of " Fortunio " at Tavistock House by the
Charles Dickens Private Theatricals Company. After
the play the room was cleared for a dance. The
property-man had overlooked the head of Fortunio's
horse " Comrade." Douglas Jerrold picked up the
mask, and holding it up in front of Landseer, said —
we can imagine him saying it — " Looks as if it knew
you, Edwin ! "
Although dog subjects had been less frequent of
recent years, Landseer had lost neither his aflfection for
" 9 ipiJ" *^^ animal nor his cunning in portraiture.
and This was plainly proved by "Saved" (Royal
^^ Unrip Academy, 1856), a grand Newfoundland
Tnm " bringing ashore a child rescued from drown-
ing — the picture appropriately dedicated to
the Royal Humane Society, — and two sooty-grey bull-
terriers, "Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale" (Royal
Academy, 1857). The latter, suggested by Unck
Tom's Cabin, ultimately belonged to Sir Henry Tate,
150
A Curious Coincidence
and now hangs in the Gallery which he so munificently
presented to the nation. The grief-stricken animals are
conscious of their doom. Old Tom blubbers openly,
and his poor wife's sympathy for him and sorrow for
herself in their threatened separation after life-long
comradeship, are depicted with a beautiful pathos.
Two splendid deer pictures were exhibited at the
Royal Academy in 1857, both unusually large, —
" Braemar," a defiant stag with does hard ^
by, and " Browsing," a stag at food, in '. '^"
blissful ignorance of approaching danger *
which has already been sniffed by keener-witted hinds.
The latter was a cartoon in red, black, and white chalk,
and measured 7 feet 7 inches by 9 feet. It was drawn
at the Holme Wood, where, for 'his health's sake, Sir
Edwin was staying. Owing to the nature of the
materials in which it had been drawn it was essential
that it should neither be rubbed nor wetted. For this
reason it was protected by a stout sheet of plate-glass.
In consequence of its great size it was not removed
from Huntingdonshire to Trafalgar Square without
considerable difficulty. Strange to say, though this was
one of the pictures in the Royal Academy that would
suffer damage from rain, it was really exposed to injury
in this respect. A heavy downpour forced its way into
the gallery through a defective gkylight, and the rain
actually passed between the glass and the cartoon.
Fortunately the damage was not irreparable, and at the
sale of Mr. Wells's collection this fine picture, which was
never rendered in oils, fetched ;^2ioo.
151
Sir Edwin Landseer
Mr. William Wells was the nephew of Mr. Wells of
Redleaf, and inherited his uncle's property. Though
W II f ^^^^ ^"'^'^ °^ ^^^' ^^ ^^^ ^°^ ^ patron. He
rr 7 besfan life as an officer in the ist Life
rrr J Guards, but his hobby was agriculture, and
he spent a large sum of money in draining
and reclaiming Whittlesea Mere. He was M.P. for
Beverley (1851-56) and for Peterborough (1868-74), and
was elected to the Council of the Royal Agricultural
Society in 1861. He was keenly interested in the
Volunteer movement, which owed so much to the Earl
of Wemyss, whose sister he married. He often enter-
tained Landseer (whom he survived sixteen years) at
the Holme Wood, his place in Huntingdonshire.
152
CHAPTER X.
ST. PAUL'S.
[i8s8-73-]
Failing sight — Mental distress — "The Maid and the Magpie" — ^Jacob
Bell's munificence — ' ' Flood in the Highlands " — Pen portrait of
Landseer at work — The " Forest " Series — " An Event in the
Forest" — "Man Proposes, God Disposes" — "A Piper and
Pair of Nutcrackers" — "Well-bred Sitters that never say they
are Bored" — E. J. Coleman — The running deer — "The Con-
noisseurs "—" Prosperity " and "Adversity"— Elected P.R.A.—
Modelling of "The Stag at Bay"— The Lions in Trafalgar
Square — Cbillingham Cattle — 111 again — Last great picture —
Final works — De Profundis — Death — Burial — Memorial Sermon —
Monument in the Crypt of St. Paul's.
By the irony of things Landseer's triumph at Paris
was concurrent with the passing of his meridian. From
this time forward, with accelerating speed, a certain
decline set in all round. It was not the social high
pressure alone that counted. The well of healthy
invention seemed running dry, which is hardly sur-
prising in a sense when one comes to think Pailintr
of the extraordinary fecundity of the previous Sip-ht
thirty-five years. But the H*es*- unkindest
blow of all fell when he discovered that his sight was
growing gradually worse. Thus faults of technique
153
Sir Edwin Lands eer
which were due to natural decay were too often attri-
buted to failure of power. What this meant to a man
who had also become hypersensitive and hypochondriac
may readily be imagined. There is no doubt but that it
entailed in his case mental suffering amounting to agony
and torture. ' ' Long after he had reached his great fame,"
said the Daily News, both truthfully and sympathetically,
"it was his delight to put a magnifying-glass into the
hand of an artist-friend and bid him examine the paint-
ing of the eye of a bird. He had the same desire for
minute finish at the last as in his youthful days ; but it
was one of his sorest trials in life that he had to paint in
glasses just when the rage for pre-Raphaelite finish was
rising. While his eyes served him he could have held
his ground with any of the pre-Raphaelite school in
regard to accuracy and finish. As it was, he was
blamed for slovenliness just when he was striving after
finish more than ever before." It was the very con-
sciousness of failing sight, as this writer pointed out,
that caused him to labour his pictures till they lost the
vigour and spirit which might have compensated for
inferior handling. If in these circumstances he had
boldly cut himself adrift from his innumerable social
entanglements, he might have retained his peace of mind
Ttr f. J and worked only when the humour pleased
j~. . , and he was physically fit. But he could not
resist the flattery of those who courted him,
which proved, on the one hand, that his magnetic
personality still charmed, and, on the other, that this
manner of life had fascination of a sort for him. The
1 54
The Thin Partition
pity of it ! For always it is the pace which kills, and
there is too much reason to fear that at times he sought
relief from worry, as well as tonic for the demands of
fashionable functions, by resort to brandy. There were
seasons, too, when his depression was so extreme that
he became the prey of hallucination and delusion to an
extent that bordered on actual dementia. I have heard
that a fall from his horse did cause injury to his brain,
not suspected at the time nor known till after his death ;
and this indentation of the skull was doubtless at the
root of his mental trouble. At any rate the morbid
conditions of mind into which he fell towards the end
of his life — fits that grew increasingly numerous — will
account for the diseased imagination which found vent
in certain of his later pictures. The critic, however,
who should judge of such works as he would of those
produced by the mens sana in corpore sano would indeed
be a despicable creature.
Happily, too, there were long spells when the clouds
lifted and he was able to design, draw, and paint with
almost pristine vigour and ingenuity; when his friends
could joyfully exclaim, " Edwin is himself again." Of
these worthy pictures mention shall now be made. ' ' The
Maid and the Magpie" (Royal Academy, ^
1858), representing a pretty lass milking ,_ .,
& cow and so absorbed in the soft nothings
of a young man admirer that she observes f'^"
not a wily magpie about to steal a silver ^
spoon from one of her shoon, afforded Mr. Jacob Bell
another opportunity of open-handed generosity, for he
IS5
Sir Edwin Landseer
bequeathed it to the British nation. Mr. Algernon
Graves gives an interesting account of the origin of the
picture. Sir Edwin had painted another subject for Bell
for I GO guineas. Shortly afterwards he was offered 2000
guineas for it and of course accepted the money, which,
however, most handsomely, he paid into Landseer's
banking account. By-and-by he related the incident
to Sir Edwin, only suppressing the names of the parties
to the transaction. The vendor, he assured him, would
not pocket the money, but wished to have him paint
another picture in its stead.
"Ah!" remarked Landseer, impressed, as well he
might be, with such magnanimity, and repeating the
Stephensonian phrase, " he shall have a good one."
When he asked for the name of his princely patron,
Bell laid his hand upon Sir Edwin's shoulder, saying,
" As Nathan said to David, • Thou art the man.' "
If Landseer had grappled with complete success with
the subject of his "Flood in the Highlands" (Royal
Academy, i860), which now hangs in Lord Cheyles-
more's collection, this picture would have been entitled
II i?r J • to rank with his very finest. As it is, one
" Flood zn ,.,.,. , ' .
,, Tj- h, i^ust award it high praise, because of its
, , ,f many beautiful passages, even although the
invention got beyond his control. The Spey
has risen in sudden spate and the cotters in the valley
have been forced to seek the shelter of their humble
roofs. With their kye and other animals it will go
hard. The mute terror of a goat and cow in the fore-
ground is appalling, and the frenzied efforts of a team
156
A Portrait in Words
of horses will be their undoing. On the roof of the
foremost cottage, which, as the sign informs us, had
been a wayside inn, a number of human beings are
huddled in various conditions of fear and distress. The
mother with her babe on her lap is one of the strongest
figures Sir Edwin ever drew. The old grandfather,
half doting, seems scarcely conscious of his danger ; nor
does the boy, boy-like, realise his peril, though from a
totally different motive, but cuddles his rescued tyke.
On the steps a cat is curiously examining a broken egg
just dropped from the hen — a habit of this creature's
when under the influence of terror, so Sir Edwin informed
Lord Cheylesmore, when he went over the picture in
the latter's house. As Mr. F. G. Stephens keenly points
out, even the colouring, sometimes not the painter's
strongest point, aids the composition, for its "chilly
opacity" almost makes one shiver and draw one's auld
cloak about one. In a subject of this kind the broken
interest does not make for a serious fault, for by the
very nature of the catastrophe it would be largely a
case of every one for himself, and anything like con-
certed action would be out of the question. On a chair
in front of the vast canvas Lord Cheylesmore has
placed Sir Edwin's study for the head of the woman, as
carefully worked up a sketch as he ever drew.
Mr. F. G. Stephens saw Landseer putting in the last
touches to this picture, and was greatly struck by his
changed appearance. "He looked," he writes, "as if
about to become old, although his age [58] by no means
justified the notion ; it was not that he had lost activity
157
Sir Edwin Landseer
or energy, or that his form had shrunk, for he moved
as firmly and swiftly as ever, indeed he was rather
demonstrative, stepping on and off the plat-
/ Mz^s form in his studio with needless display, and
his form was stout and well filled. Never-
theless, without seeming to be overworked, he did not
look robust, and he had a nervous way remarkable in
so distinguished a man, one who was usually by no
means unconscious of himself, and yet, to those he
liked, full of kindness. The wide green shade which
he wore above his eyes projected straight from his fore-
head, and cast a large shadow on his plump, somewhat
livid features, and in the shadow one saw that his eyes
had suffered. The grey Tweed suit, and its sober trim,
a little emphatically 'quiet,' marked the man; so did
his stout, not fat nor robust, figure ; rapid movements,
and 'utterances that glistened with prompt remarks,
sharp, concise, with quick humour, but not seeking
occasions for wit, and imbued throughout with a perfect
frankness, distinguished the man."
It was not until 1861 that he was able to finish the
last of the twenty drawings for his contemplated series
y,, in illustration of Deer-stalking. The first
"Forest" *^° ^^^ been done as far back as 1845,
Series ^"'^ *^® whole set were to be published
together under the title of "The Forest."
He gave himself a great deal of unnecessary trouble
and worry — at a period, too, when worry worked like
madness in the brain — by undertaking to superintend
the business part of the production, a kind of thing that
158
A Bad Business
he had hitherto been spared through the thoughtfulness
of intimate friends. He commissioned the engravers
himself (Thomas Landseer engraved 14 ; C. G. Lewis,
4; and John Outrim, 2) with special instructions that
not a single print was to go out. In 1855 C. G. Lewis
had a sale of a complete set of engravings after Land-
seer, and by accident two or three from "The Forest"
were included amongst them. Sir Edwin consulted
Mr. Henry Graves on the matter, and in consequence
began an action to compel Lewis to withdraw these
proofs. In 1862, or thereabouts, Mr. Henry Graves, in
his turn, obtained one or two others of the series
without knowing they were in his possession. As it
happened. Sir Edwin was then due at Pall Mall to sign
a large parcel of proofs. Landseer's task was nearly
ended when he came to these particular prints. He
pitched them across the Gallery in a towering passion
and refused to sign any more that day. When all the
twenty plates were engraved Sir Edwin determined to
publish them himself, but was soon forced to give up
that notion. The bother and anxiety were more than
he could bear, and his friend, Mr. Hyde Hills, accordingly
proposed that Mr. Henry Graves should acquire the
twenty plates on the understanding that only 100 sets
were to be published, that they were only to be sold in
unbroken sets, and that Landseer was to sign the 2000
proofs and desig-n the portfolio. These conditions were
accepted, and 100 subscribers at thirty guineas a set
were .obtained without difficulty. Then new trouble
arose. When Mr. Algernon Graves took the 2000
IS9
Sir Edwin Landseer
prints to St. John's Wood for signature, Sir Edwin
flung into a fury and threatened to cancel the whole
transaction rather than submit to this drudgery. By-
and-by, as Mr. Graves discussed the situation, he grew
calmer, and at last consented to sign one plate in each
set, handing Mr. Graves his signet ring so that a stamp
(E.L.) might be made and the remaining 1,900 proofs
stamped with it. Even then fresh trouble was a-brewing,
in which I cannot say that Sir Edwin was to blame.
He wished to sign the first plate — " Wait till he rise" —
as the opening incident of the series, but Mr. Henry
Graves was anxious that " The Fatal Duel," the finest
of the set, should bear the author's signature. The
difference was adjusted by his signing 25 of the first and
75 of the finest. Most of the originals remained in his
keeping and fetched high prices at Christie's in the year
after his death.
But the elaborate picture of the Highland Flood took
a great deal of creative force out of the painter, and
during the next two years he did little work that
approached his standard. But in 1864 there was a
marked revival of power. It will be recollected that
Sir John Pender had acquired the picture of "The Lost
Sheep." This was painted on an oblong canvas of con-
siderable dimensions, and its new proprietor, feeling the
,, _ . need of a suitable companion picture, com-
, missioned a work of similar size in the year
following the purchase of the older one. Land-
seer called this picture, which was to restore the balance
of Sir John Pender's walls, by the somewhat uninspired
160
' The Monarch of the Glen" (p. 146).
The Franklin Picture
title of "An Event in the Forest" (British Institution,
1865). But the subject was rendered with characteristic
vigour and feeling. It represented a stag lying dead
amidst the rocks at the foot of a precipice over which it
has fallen. A fox pauses in its scrutiny of its unlooked-
for booty, pending the arrival of a bird of prey which
is speedily nearing the scene of the disaster, and with
which there may be a collision. At Sir John Pender's
sale in 1897 the picture fetched ;^26so.
"Man Proposes, God Disposes" (Royal Academy,
1864), another large and striking canvas that now
adorns the Royal Holloway College for ^
Women at Egham, was a bitter satire upon
the vanity of human effort, representing as ^oposes
it did Polar bears toying with the relics of the ill-fated
expedition of Sir John Franklin and his comrade heroes.
"The chief features of the composition," writes Mr. C.
W. Carey, the Curator of the Picture Gallery at the
Royal Holloway College, "are the two huge bears, one
with his head thrown up, cracking a small human bone
between his teeth, the other tearing at a portion of
the Union Jack upon which rests a broken mast. The
artistic charm of the work lies in the exquisite grey-
green colour scheme, and the tragi-poetical sentiment
embodied in the expressions of the beasts and the
introduction of the few objects — telescope, rib bones
of a man, portion of sail, etc. — connecting them with
the lost sailors. Its merits still rank it among the
two or three of the very best of Landseer's produc-
tions, just as they did when it was first exhibited,
161 M
Sir Edwin Lands eer
and when Mr. T. Holloway paid 6,300 guineas for it
in 1881" (at Christie's, on the 28th of May).
As if to relieve the poignant gloom of this vigorous
and truly remarkable composition, Landseer also sent
. to the Royal Academy one of the sunniest
tper pictures he ever painted, the "Piper and
and Nut- p^.^ ^^ Nutcrackers," a bullfinch and couple
of squirrels, so delightfully engraved by
Samuel Cousins. This picture was so bright, fresh,
and charming that some have averred that, though not
hitherto exhibited, it had really been painted several
years before. Lynx-eyed Mr. Graves says nothing of
this theory, and the circumstance would scarcely have
escaped him. One is glad there is nothing in it, for such
a jolly picture could only have come from a light heart,
and it is nice to think that Sir Edwin had thrown off
Black Care for a season. Nor did this end the tale of
his gayer pictures of 1864, for he showed at the British
Institution, and it was almost the last picture he ex-
. „^ hibited at that moribund gallery, a composi-
tion entitled "Well-bred Sitters that never
c-« » say they are Bored." It was a group of the
^ animals, quick and dead, that he had loved
to paint all his life — dogs and doves and game. This
was sold at Christie's, on the date already mentioned,
for the enormous sum of ;^S25o.
Both it and the Franklin subject had belonged to his
friend Mr. E. J. Coleman, a liberal patron of the arts,
at whose fine place. Stoke Park at Stoke Poges,
Landseer was ever a welcome guest. The banqueting-
162
Paints his Portrait
room of the old manor-house was always at his disposal
as a studio whenever he felt inclined for work. It was
there that he drew in red crayon a deerhound
going at the top of its speed. Afterwards, '•''
in order to justify the dog, he added a ^"'^
quarry in the shape of a stag, and exhibited the picture
under the name of "The Chase" at the Royal Academy
in 1866. This also commanded the handsome figure of
;^525o at Christie's in May 1881. It was from this
picture that, at the request of the Earl of
Wemyss, then Lord Elcho, the Chairman of . ^J^'^
the National Rifle Association, Sir Edwin '^^'^S Deer
made a life-size drawing of a running deer, from which
was fashioned the iron target that figured in the Running
Deer competition first at Wimbledon Common and after-
wards at Bisley. How many volunteers, one wonders,
knew when they were peppering the iron deer, that they
were firing at what was practically the handiwork of Sir
Edwin Landseer? It almost seemed, however, as if he
had to pay a heavy penalty for the industry of this year.
He ends a note of September and, "Your used-up old
friend," and in another letter he says, "If I am bothered
about everything and anything, no matter what, I know
my head will not stand it much longer" — ominous
phrases.
By a happy coincidence his chief picture at the Royal
Academy of 1865 was a portrait of himself. He is
represented as seated sketching, while, looking over his
shbulders, one on the right and the other on the left,
are two beautiful dogs, who constitute "The Connois-
163
Sir Edwin Lands eer
seurs" of the title. This, the most characteristic por-
trait of the painter, was presented by him to the Prince
^ of Wales. One dares hope that his Majesty
"The Cbw-j^jjjg. Edward VII. may be moved to place
notsseurs ^^^ picture in the National Portrait Gallery.
"Prosperity" and "Adversity," both shown at the
Royal Academy, told of the ups and downs in the life
of a fine bay horse. In the one he is sleek, well-
groomed, and in clover ; in the other he has fallen from
his proud estate and become the miserable hack of a
"growler."
Perhaps the most memorable event of Landseer's
life happened in 1865. On the death of Sir Charles
„ „ . Eastlake in December, Sir Edwin's col-
P R A •
' ' ' leagues with one accord elected him Presi-
dent of the Royal Academy. He was greatly touched,
but refused the honour. Maybe it had come too
late. Had the opportunity arisen sooner, he certainly
would have proved an ideal Chief. His fellows
felt this, although the earlier occasion never offered
itself. Bursting into tears, he declared the post was
not for him and named Daniel Maclise. His nomina-
tion was adopted, but the impulsive Irishman rose at
once and, in his delicious brogue, said he was the
worst man for the post in the whole Academy and
would not listen for a moment to his friends charming
never so wisely. Declined by Landseer and Maclise,
was this most distinguished office to go a-begging?
Perish the thought ! And so they elected Francis
Grant, who was a perfect gentleman, and made a capital
164
The Lion Statues
President. But it was a memorable and dramatic
session, chockfull of moving incidents.
Interesting evidence of the coming completion of the
lions for Trafalgar Square was afforded in 1866 by his
model of the " Stag at Bay." The Duke of ^ , ,,.
Abercorn had expressed a wish to have a ^
group of hunted deer and dogs cast in silver for a
centre-piece, but he was compelled to abandon his plan
in consequence of the large scale on which Sir Edwin
had modelled the subject. However, it was cast in
bronze as It stood, then painted over by Landseer, and
purchased by Mr. H. W. Eaton (afterwards first Lord
Cheylesmore), and is now in his son's possession. The
model was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the year
in which it was produced.
"Long looked for, come at last" — Landseer's four
lions were placed on their pedestals at the base of the
Nelson Monument in 1867 (Mr. Graves says
i868, but this must be a slip). He had
received the commission from Lord Derby
in 1859, just before the great Tory orator *"'**
and statesman left office, and they had thus been nearly
eight years in hand. The delay was the occasion of
the usual facetiousness to groundling and grumbler, but
considering that every scrap of the modelling was done
by Sir Edwin himself, without help from any source
whatever, it does not seem an excessive period, having
regard also to the facts that he was a painter and not a
sculptor and that his own proper work could not wholly
be set aside. The first lion was placed in situ on the
165
. Sir Edwin Lands eer
25th of January (Burns's birthday) 1867, an event
which provoked Punch to perpetrate the foUowbg
atrocity which, at a guess, we ascribe to Tom Taylor :
— "The first lion intended for the Nelson Monument
has broken from its distinguished keeper, Sir Edwin
Landseer, and is now at large — in fact, at very large —
in Trafalgar Square. The inhabitants are gradually
regaining composure. A poet in the neighbourhood
has already begun a poem, entitled 'A dawning of a
Roarer.' " The colossal quartet was unveiled on the
31st of January. Each lion measured 20 feet long
and 1 1 feet high, and weighed 7 tons. They were cast
in metal by Baron Marochetti at a cost of ;^i 1,000.
The fee paid to Sir Edwin was ;^6ooo. Critics carped
in the Press for a while, and one person, presumably
non compos mentis, was arrested for flinging stones at
them. But the nobility of the treatment and the
majesty of the pose, and the grand air of distinction
which they lent not only to the Column but to the Square,
gradually wore down the voice of Unreason and
Detraction, until it was freely confessed that Pillar
and Lions together formed the most magnificent
monument in the metropolis. As Mr. Algernon Graves
reminds me, with excellent point, had the lions been
erected in the Egyptian desert, they would have attracted
travellers from all parts of the globe as to a Wonder of
the World ; whereas in London they have become so
familiar that nobody properly appreciates them. Still,
to the seeing eye their value is enormous. At the
instance of the Chief Commissioner of Woods and
166
Wild White Cattle
Forests, Mr. Vernon Heath took eight photographs of
the statues in the following month. The police held the
Square as long as was necessary to enable him to secure
his negatives — two of each lion from different ppints.
Landseer thought so highly of these photographs that,
as he said, "he had recommended no end of friends"
to obtain copies, and Tom Taylor in The Times
(March 1867) advised all who could not see the very
lions to study the photographs of them, if they wished
"to form an adequate judgment of this last and best
addition " to London's sculptures. In the National
Portrait Gallery, too, there is an interesting picture by
Mr. John Ballantyne, R.S.A., representing Sir Edwin
modelling one of the colossal carnivores on the platform
in the Baron's studio.
Ever since his first trip to Scotland Landseer had
kept up more or less close relations with the Earl of
Tankerville, and in this year he was again a .
guest at Chillingham Castle, painting the ^r^fj
"Red Deer" and "Wild Cattle" (both '^'^'^ ^'^'^"^
exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1867). These animals
were noble subjects for his brush. This herd and the
Duke of Hamilton's in Cadzow Forest are directly
descended from the wild cattle which roamed through
the Caledonian Forest long before the Romans invaded
the island. All blue-blooded boasts of long descent pale
before an ancestry like that. The cattle are beautiful
creatures. Except that their hoofs, muzzles, horn tips,
tail ends, and eye circles are black, and that the inside
of the ears is brownish-red, their colour is a pure white,
167
Sir Edwin Landseer
tending in some towards cream. Their back is as
strdght as a table, their legs are short, their horns
could inflict an ugly gash in the cleanest fashion, and
their whole appearance shows that every inch of muscle
is developed. Standing on the moors against a black
background of firs, and eyeing the distant passer-by with
a half-doubting, half-curious gaze, they form an attrac-
tive and picturesque group, such as fascinated Sir
Edwin many's the time and oft. The Chillingham herd
usually numbers between sixty and seventy. Their
habits demonstrate their " wildness," for they hide their
young, feed by night, and sleep during the day. In
stress of wintry weather they will visit the Home Park
for food, but in summer they frequently disappear for
weeks into the depths of the forest. Their cry is not
like "crummie's" at all, resembling rather that of a
savage beast. When they travel they move in Indian
file, the bulls at the head. The Earl of Tankerville
himself, when Lord Ossulston, had the narrowest
escape from an awful death. One of the cattle having
been wounded in the chase, his lordship rode towards it
gun in hand, intending to put an end to its sufferings.
All of a sudden the bull turned, charged and gored his
horse. Happily the steed ran several hundred yards
before it dropped down dead ; but then nothing seemed
to stand between Lord Ossulston and instant destruc-
tion. Meanwhile, however, the huntsmen and keepers
had come up, and succeeded in diverting the creature's
attack from his lordship to themselves. Thus the heir
of Chillingham, one of Landseer's staunchest friends,
i68
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Beginning of the End
was saved. In commemoration of this event he painted
in 1836 his picture of the "Death of the Wild Bull"
(exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year), in which
he introduced portraits of Lord Ossulston and Mr.
Wells of Redleaf. " The pony's name was ' Hotspur,' "
says Mr. Algernon Graves, "and the deerhound's
' Bran.' The dog had saved the keeper's life after he
had been tossed by a bull by biting the animal off and
holding him at bay until the keeper was got into a cart."
But in spite of these successes illness still dogged
him, even when, at the kindly instance of friends, he
was staying in the country for his health's
sake. From Balmoral he writes to Jessie in /// Again
June, 1867: — "Why I know not, but since
I have been in the Highlands I have for the first time
felt wretchedly weak, without appetite. The easterly
winds, and now again the unceasing cold rain, may
possibly account for my condition, as I can't get out.
Drawing tires me ; however, I have done a little better
to-day. The doctor residing in the Castle has taken
me in hand, and gives me leave to dine to-day with the
Queen and 'the rest of the Royal Family.' . . . Flogging
would be mild compared to my sufferings. No sleep,
fearful cramp at night, accompanied by a feeling of
faintness and distressful feebleness." In a letter written
from Dingwall, during another visit to Scotland this
year, he says, "All my joints ache; the lumbago has
reasserted its unkindness; a warm bath is in requisition,
and I am a poor devil." It is pathetic to know that,
whilst he was lying at the Holme Wood, actually in a
169
Sir Edwin Landseer
condition bordering on insanity, it was a sight of a
print of Samuel Cousins's skilful handiwork in the plate
of the "Midsummer Night's Drea!m," which Mr. Henry
Graves had taken to show him, that roused him out
of his torpid state and restored him to reason.
But though henceforward to the end he was almost con-
tinuously racked by mental anguish and physical pain,
La. t Gr t ^^^ ^^^ creative energy was well-nigh spent,
„. , he produced in 1869 one picture which, in
the estimation of so competent a judge as
Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., was perhaps the finest he ever
painted. This was the "Swannery Invaded by Eagles,"
exhibited at the Royal Academy in the same year, as to
which Mr. F. G. Stephens is, for him, hot in praise. It
came, said the Art Critic of The Athenmutn, "a great
deal nearer to Snyders' manner than any Landseer had
produced for many years; indeed, since youth had
ceased with him he rarely worked with so much solidity,
firmness, and with such skill as in that which we think
his last noble picture." Its subject is almost explained
in the title. Eagles have swooped down upon some
swans' nests, and a terrible fight ensues. One swan is
already slain, two others battle valiantly, their white
plumage besmeared with blood. The remnant of the
colony vainly seek safety in flight, for other eagles have
marked them for their prey, intent upon slaughtering
the handsome birds which presumed to build so near
to their haunts. The dying swan is said to pass to the
loud, clear notes of its most beautiful song, and it
is not a little singular that Landseer's last great work,
170
Last Paintings
his swan-song, should be a picture of swans defending
to the death their home and young from the rapiile
of cruel and passionate marauders.
But though not on this high level, " Ptarmigan Hill "
and the two "Lion Studies," which he made to help him
whilst modelling the Lions for Trafalgar „■ ,
Square (all three shown at the Royal Aca- -^ ,
demy in 1869), possessed great merit. The
last two he presented to his bosom friend, Mr. T. Hyde
Hills, who in turn bequeathed them to the British
nation. In the following year he exhibited at Burling-
ton House his " Doctor's Visit to Poor Relations at the
Zoological Gardens," now known as "The Sick Mon-
key," representing an ailing monkey nursed by its
mother, whilst a Diana monkey, acting as physician,
devours an orange for its fee, which was a worthy
example of the school which he founded.
His health had now broken down permanently. Year
in and year out it was nearly always the same sad
story of suffering ; indeed, the certificate
assigned "cerebral disease" as the general „ , ,.
and "cerebral effusion" as the immediate ■'
cause of his death, the former pointing to a chronic
condition of pain and misery. On the nth of March
i86g, when sending his friend Hills some "oil studies
of old friends from the Zoo " (the Lion sketches just
mentioned) he writes pathetically of his " endless obliga-
tions to your unceasing desire to aid a poor old man,
nearly used up." On the 5th of June he tells the same
friend: " I am anything but well; botherations unfit me
171
Sir Edwin Landseer
for healthy work ; " and later still he confesses that his
"health (or rather condition) is a mystery quite beyond
human intelligence. I sleep well seven hours, and
awake tired and jaded, and do not rally till after
luncheon." Another visit to the friends at Chilling-
ham Castle and the bracing breezes of Northumbrian
moorland and hills yields little relief. " Very mortify-
ing are the disappointments I have to face," he moans,
"one day seeming to give hope of a decided turn in
favour of natural feeling, the next knocked down again."
As he fell into his final illness he was nursed with the
greatest tenderness and care. Although very weak,
there were days when he was able, leaning on his
sister's arm, to stroll slowly around his well-loved
garden. One fine spring morning in 1872, he told
Mrs. Mackenzie he "would never see the green leaves
again," but he was spared to see another spring and
autumn. He could not tear himself away from his
studio, where his life's work had been done and so
many victories won, and painted here a little and there a
little nearly to the last. Mrs. Richmond Ritchie tells how,
when he was almost at his worst, his friends ' ' gave him
his easel and his canvas and left him alone in his studio,
in the hope that he might take up his work and forget
his suffering. When they came back they found that
he had painted the picture of a little Iamb lying beside
a lion. Queen Victoria was the owner of one of the
last pictures he ever painted. She wrote to her old
friend and expressed her admiration for it, and asked
to become the possessor. Her sympathy brightened
172
The End
the sadness of those last days for him. It is well
known that he appealed to her once when haunted by
some painful apprehensions, and that her wise and
judicious kindness came to the help of his nurses. She
sent him back a message — bade him not be afraid, and
to trust to those who were doing their best for him,
and in whom she herself had every confidence."
Indeed, her Majesty's gracious sympathy with the
dying artist might have been anticipated from the
sincerity of her lifelong admiration for the man and
his works. Her friendship was shared by her Consort
so long as he was by her side, and was in signal con-
trast with the behaviour of many members of Society
for whose unworthy sakes Sir Edwin had spent himself,
going down to dusty death before his time.
It was his wish to die in his studio, where Death
he lay month after month longing for the
end, but he passed away in his own room on the ist
of October 1873, in the presence of his brother, whom
he was able to recognise and whose hand he was holding
as he entered the Silent Land.
Edwin Landseer was buried on Saturday, the nth of
October, in St. Paul's Cathedral, his mortal remains
being laid in the Crypt in the south-eastern
corner where other great painters sleep. He Burial
lies between Sir J. E. Boehm, R.A., the
sculptor, and George Dawe, R.A., who died in 1829.
Then come Fuseli, his old master, George Dance, the
last surviving member of the original Forty Royal
Academicians, Sir Benjamin West, P. R.A., Lord
173
Sir Edwin Landseer
Leighton of Stretton, P.R.A., whilst Reynolds, Law-
rence, James Barry, Opie, Turner, George Richmond,
Millais, and Wren are not far off. Queen Victoria
and the Prince of Wales sent wreaths, and every
member of the Royal Academy who was not for-
bidden by illness or distance was present. Letters,
Politics, and the Army were represented by Browning,
Lord Granville, Lord Westminster, Lord Hardinge, and
Sir William Codrington. But shame of shames! " with
one or two distinguished exceptions," says The Times,
"that world of fashion which made Landseer its own
during his life was conspicuous by its absence."
At the service next forenoon, the pulpit of St. Paul's
was occupied by the Rev. J. A. Hessey, D.D., the
Preacher of Gray's Inn, who delivered an eloquent
discourse In Memoriam from the eleventh verse of
the third chapter of Ecclesiastes — "He hath made
everything beautiful in his time."
In 1882 a sculptured slab in white marble, executed
by Thomas Woolner, R.A., was let into the side-wall of
one of the window recesses of the Crypt, At the top
of this mural monument is a palette and brushes,
below is a finely-chiselled medallion portrait, and at
the base is a rendering in high relief of "The' Old
Shepherd's Chief Mourner," an exquisitely happy
symbol of fidelity and love.
174
CHAPTER XI.
THE MAN.
Appearance — Character — Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde — Disposition —
Of whom was he jealous? — The charge of meanness — Habituh of
his studio — His way with animals — ^What he thought of the
stag — A bachelor — Rosa Bonheur — Industry — Copying — Forgery
— False attributions — Translation — Delightful pictures to live with
—The Sir Walter Scott of the animal world.
Landseer was of middle height, or possibly a trifle
below it. His complexion was fresh, his nose just
slightly "tip-tilted like the petals of a rose,"
his hair hazel-brown (conveying the impres- "^
sion that he was a fair man) and bushy. In
his youth his locks were curly, and he looked a bonnie
boy. On the whole, his face could not be called a
strong one, although he had a fine, broad forehead.
Until he lent himself too readily to society, he was
something of a home bird. In winter, the day's darg
done, he and Charles and their three sisters often
indulged in an evening's harmony, Edwin had a good
voice and sometimes sang alone, with rare charm of
taste and style. In summer his garden was a great
hobby, and his dogs and he were a never-failing source
of fun and amusement.
175
Sir Edwin Landseer
Before he was partly sullied by social success, he was
a delightful companion, retaining however, even until the
final calamitous breakdown, many of the attri-
Character butes that went to his early popularity. His
bump of what phrenologists call self-esteem
was so slight that he was constrained constantly to lean
on the opinion of others. No doubt, unconscious at first
of any tendency to "bow and scrape," this deference to
rank and wealth carried him in the long run far on the
road to wreckage. The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in
him grew apace with lapse of time. With the men of
his own set and age he was natural and nice, but he
threw off much of his amiableness when he put on his
Society dress and manners. The oiling and curling of
his locks for some "swagger" function did not lubricate
his behaviour towards most of those who had the best
claim to his friendship. Indeed, his stiff behaviour and
distant air were so painful that many of his older
comrades preferred to stand aloof rather than behold
the deterioration of his nature and character. This
vexed him in turn, for in his inmost heart he felt that
his friends were justified and that he was to blame.
It is necessary to insist upon this dual strain, because
it explains the contrariety of views that have been held
about Sir Edwin's personal qualities. By
Disposition some he was accused of jealousy. Of whom
had he need to be jealous? The notion is
absurd. Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., who knew him inti-
mately, and was man-of-the-world enough to make
allowances for foibles and failings, asserts that he was
176
Character
without envy; nay more, he has heard him depreciate
his own powers in language that was almost startling.
"If," he said, "people only knew as much about paint-
ing as I do, they would never buy my pictures."
Perhaps it was because he knew Society so well that
Landseer said to Frith, when the latter told him that he
had accepted her Majesty's commission to paint the
marriage of the Prince of Wales for the sum of ;^30oo,
"Well, for all the money in this world and all in the
next I wouldn't undertake such a thing!"
Again, in common with all John Landseer's children
save "Tom," he has been charged with meanness.
Here we are concerned only with Sir Edwin, and his
record is surely clean. We have read how Frederick
Goodall remonstrated with him on the profuse distri-
bution of his sketches; how he cleared the Iron Duke
from the imputation of avarice, a step which he was not
suificiently brazen-faced to have taken had the vice
begun to gnaw at his own vitals ; how Mrs. Richmond
Ritchie looked upon him as the restorer of a "certain
sumptuous habit of living," a mode which is absolutely
incompatible with meanness. Mrs. Ritchie relates a
characteristic instance of full-handed generosity which
was communicated to her by Mr. Hyde Hills, the victim
of it:— "About ten years ago [1863]," said Mr. Hills,
"Sir Edwin wished me to keep a dog, thinking that
when I came home I should not be so lonely ; he also
said that he would look out for one for me himself. I
told him that my business occupations [Mr. Hills was a
partner in Jacob Bell & Co.] would not allow me to
177 N
Sir Edwin Landseer
give a dog proper attention, and although Sir Edwin
mentioned the subject more than once I still refused.
About a month afterwards he came to dine with me one
day, and when he arrived he brought a beautifully-
finished picture of a dog, saying: 'Here, Hills, I have
brought you a parlour boarder ; I hope you won't turn
him out of doors."* This was the picture of "Pixie,"
which he painted in i860.
But bring these aspersions to another test. Were
Samuel Rogers and Mr. Wells of Redleaf and his
nephew of the Holme Wood, were John Sheepshanks
and Jacob Bell and Robert Vernon likely men to
welcome to their houses whenever he chose to come
an atrabilious painter eaten up with meanness and
jealousy? Above all, would an artist of such a char-
acter and disposition be unanimously elected President
of the Royal Academy, an office for which it is notorious
that the very opposite qualities are almost more of a
sine qud rum than high skill in painting and drawing ?
Just consider the men who haunted Landseer's studio,
and who would as soon have chummed up to Chadband
or Stiggins as to a mean and jealous man.
Here are delightful pen-pictures sketched
■^ doubtless by a discerning woman (?Mrs.
Mackenzie or Miss Landseer) for Mrs.
Richmond Ritchie in a few vivid touches: — "Besides
the genial artist and his beautiful pictures, the habitids
of his workshop (as he called it) belonged to the ilite
of London Society, especially the men of wit and dis-
tinguished talents — none more often there than D'Orsay,
178
Companions and Friends
with his good-humoured face, his ready wit, and deli-
cate flattery. 'Landseer,' he would call out at his
entrance, 'keep the dogs off me [the painted ones], I
want to come in and some of them will bite me — and
that fellow in the corner is growling furiously.' Another
day he seriously asked me for a pin, and when I pre-
sented it to him and wished to know why he wanted it,
he replied, 'To take de thorn out of dat dog's foot; do
you not see what pain he is in?' I never look at the
picture now without this other picture rising before me.
Then there was Mulready, still looking upon Landseer
as the young student, and fearing that all this incense
would spoil him for future work ; and Fonblanque, who
maintained from first to last that he was on the top
rung of the ladder, and when at the exhibition of some
of Landseer's later works, he heard it said, 'They are
not equal to his former ones,' exclaimed in his own
happy manner, 'It is hard upon Landseer to flog him
with his own laurels,'" Finely said and felicitously,
Fonblanque, faithful friend !
But if men of the world are good judges of men, dogs
are almost infallible. How does Landseer stand in this
particular ? What were his relations with these devoted
creatures ? It has been said that his excessively keen
sensitiveness and the tenacious aifection of his highly-
strung nature endowed him with an acute insight into
the character and habits of these animals.
He loved his old rough-haired white terrier "Brutus,"
we are told, so consumedly that he never entirely got over
its loss, never again attached himself to one favourite,
179
Sir Edwin Landseer
but ever afterwards was usually seen surrounded with
half-a-dozen dogs. There was one dog which when it
Tf. wanted its walk, and when Sir Edwin tarried
.,, too long at his easel, used to bring him his
. . , hat and lay it at his feet on the floor. He had
a marvellous way of ingratiating himself with
dogs, which he knew as few fanciers have ever known
them. At Redleaf one afternoon he and Frederick
Goodall went out for a stroll, their only companion being
a beautiful retriever. In frolicsome spirit the dog was
running here, there, and everywhere, and whilst it was
racing ahead Landseer unseen hung up one of his
gloves on the bough of a tree. After they had walked
on for a quarter of a mile or so, he called the dog,
showed it his two hands, one ungloved. Without a
word from him the creature went back, and in a couple
of minutes returned with the missing glove.
Mrs. Ritchie's correspondent, the intimate friend
already quoted, gave her a most instructive account of
Landseer's way with animals. " He had a strong
feeling," she wrote, "against the way some dogs are
tied up ; only allowed their freedom now and then. He
used to say a man would fare better tied up than a dog,
because the former can take his coat off, but a dog lives
in his for ever. He declared a tied-up dog without
daily exercise goes mad or dies in three years. His
wonderful power over dogs is well-known. An illustrious
lady [whom we shall venture upon identifying as Queen
Victoria] asked him how it was that he gained this
knowledge. ' By peeping into their hearts, ma'am,' was
1 80
Love for Animals
his answer. I remember once being wonderfully struck
with the mesmeric attractions he possessed with them.
A large party of his friends were with him at his house
in St. John's Wood ; his servant opened the door ; three
or four dogs rushed in, one a very fierce-looking mastiff.
We ladies recoiled, but there was no fear ; the creature
bounded up to Landseer, treated him like an old friend,
with most expansive demonstrations of delight. Some
one remarking 'how fond the dog seemed of him;' he
said, ' I never saw it before in my life.' Would that
horsp-trainers could have learned from him how horses
could be broken in or trained more easily by kindness
than by cruelty ! Once when visiting him he came in
from Viis meadow [adjoining the house] looking some-
what dishevelled and tired. 'What have you been
doing ? ' we asked him. ' Only teaching some horses
tricks for Astley's [a once famous circus in Westminster
Bridge Road], and here is my whip,' he said, showing us
a piece of sugar in his hand. He said that breaking-in
horses meant more often breaking their hearts, and
robbing them of all their spirit."
As one transcribes these suggestive sentences, one
can scarcely refrain from thinking, " What a rare Book
of the Dog Sir Edwin Landseer could have written, and
how marvellously he would have illustrated it ! "
But if he loved dogs he greatly admired the stag,
and upon both animals he lavished all his painter's skill.
Sir Edwin once told Browning, writes Mrs. Ritchie,
"that he had thought upon the subject, and come to
the conclusion that the stag was the bravest of all
i8i
Sir Edwin Landseer
animals. Other animals are born warriors — they fight
in a dogged and determined sort of way; the stag
D , is naturally timid — trembling, vibrating with
Bravery of \, a ■ r j c X
the St svery sound, flymg from danger, from the ap-
proach of other creatures, halting [hesitating]
to fight. When pursued, its first impulse is to escape ;
but when turned to bay and flight is impossible it fronts
its enemies nobly, closes its eyes not to see the terrible
bloodshed, and with its branching horns steadily tosses
dog after dog, one upon the other, until overpowered
at last by numbers it sinks to its death."
Landseer was never married. During the greater part
of his life he resided in No. i St.* John's Wood Road, but
Life Innir ^o^^^j Studio, and grounds, as we have said
D i.7 already, have been replaced by a pile of flats.
His sister Jessie was his housekeeper, and
the two were devoted to each other ; his other sister,
Mrs. Mackenzie, taking her place whenever occasion
demanded. At one time it was rumoured that he was
Rosa g'"''^? to wfid Rosa Bonheur. It now looks
„ i^ like a " wish-father-to-the-thought " report.
But Mr. W. P. Frith treated it seriously,
and broached the subject one day with Sir Edwin.
" Perhaps it's a little late, Landseer," he said, " but I
wish to offer my congratulations and best wishes."
"On what?"
" Why, upon your contemplating matrimony."
" Matrimony ! Whom am I going to marry ? "
" Well, I understand that Rosa Bonheur is the
happy woman."
182
Life-work
"This is the first I have heard of it," remarked
Landseer; "but it's not a bad idea, and I must think
it over."
Possibly this may have been banter, but the illustrious
Frenchwoman and her rival the famous Englishman
entertained sentiments of high admiration for each
other. They had met in England and exchanged the
heartiest greetings. Frith, Millais, and Gambart, the
well-known picture-dealer, went to Paris to see the
Exhibition of 1868, and made a pilgrimage to Fontaine-
bleau to pay her homage. When Gambart told her of
the praise bestowed by Sir Edwin upon one of her
pictures then being shown in London, " her eyes filled
with tears." Habitually she spoke of him as "the
poet-painter of animals."
During at least fifty years Landseer worked indefatig-
ably. Mr. Algernon Graves catalogues 628 pictures
and sketches between 1809 and 1873, of
which the last sixteen years of his life ac- Industry
count for only 62. In addition to these Mr.
Monkhouse's volume contained 180 sketches, more or
less elaborate, the originals of which were drawn in
every variety of medium (pencil, oil, chalk, ink, sepia,
pen and ink, water colour, pencil with tint washes, sepia
and colour, pencil and chalk, pencil and ink, pen and
sepia). To the Scribblers' Book, besides, he con-
tributed sketches by the score, and collectors possess
many pictures and sketches that have hitherto eluded
the chronicler. This output, if less phenomenal than
Turner's amazing record, or even than that of Sir Joshua
183
Sir Edwin Landseer
Reynolds or Sir John Gilbert, nevertheless testifies to
unflagging zeal and industry. Not that he was a
strictly methodical worker. He went to bed late and
rose late, breakfasting at noon. This does not mean,
however, that he was a sluggard. The course of his
art-life forbids such a gloss, just as the course of his
social life explains if it does not excuse his late hours.
But even when beneath the blankets, he spent much of
his time in thinking out his pictures. His facility was
unrivalled simply because, before he took his stand at
his easel, he had realised in his mind the whole of a
composition and saw his completed subject with his
mind's eye. This lent to charcoal and brush, as we
must reiterate, a sureness of touch, a firmness of
modelling, and a swiftness of execution which enabled
him to accomplish the most finished effects in a marvel-
lously short time. Ease and dexterity did not imply
in his case scamped work; they came as the conse-
quences of the thoroughness of his training, of the infinite
capacity for taking pains which he displayed throughout
his entire apprenticeship, of his whole-hearted devotion
to Art.
Whether or not it is legitimate to produce a replica of
a picture is an arguable question, but Mr. Frith em-
phatically declares that Landseer was "the
Copying only popular punter who kept free from the
vice of copying." This was literally true,
although the engravers occasionally made separate
pictures of isolated passages in fuller and larger works,
as, for instance, "My Horse" from the "Return from
184
Forged Pictures
Hawking;" "My Dog," from "A Distinguished
Member of the Humane Society;" "Rustic Beauty,"
from "The Highland Whisky Still;" the "Falconer's
Son" and the " Fisherman's Daughter," from " Bolton
Abbey;" and "Protection — Hen and Chickens," from
the " Highland Drovers' Departure." This is a matter
well within every artist's control upon which it is
impossible to dogmatise ; but there is another thing in
which the artist is perfectly irresponsible and often
grievously wronged. Amongst the pests of his calling
not the least objectionable is the dishonest dealer who
palms off upon the new rich who are anxious to cover
their walls with the works of the great painters of past
and present, but who, ignorant in such affairs, place
themselves in the hands of dealers presumably of repute,
but often arrant rascals. Mr. Frith with a friend once
visited a retired tanner who had been thus victimised.
Amongst the pictures in his collection was one called
"Daniel in the Lions' Den," which, said the tanner, had
never been equalled by Landseer. " I agree with you,"
remarked Frith's friend, ' ' Landseer could not paint such
a picture to save his life," the canvas being the veriest
rubbish. Next the tanner showed them as a Landseer
"The Keeper's Daughter," which had been painted a
few years before by Frith, then face to face with the
purchaser, and Ansdell. Mr. Frith disillusionised him
on the spot, and went on to assure him that hardly a
picture in his house had been painted by the artist to
whom it was attributed; that, in short, most of them
were forgeries.
i8s
Sir Edwin Landseer
"All the Landseers, do you say?"
Frith told him "All," and on being asked whether he
thought that Landseer would confirm this, undertook
to prevail upon Sir Edwin to call. Landseer went, and
corroborated Frith in every particular. There was,
however, one landseer in the gallery — a life-sized lion
painted by Ch?(rles Landseer, which had once been used
as a chimney-board in his house. Somehow it had
found its way into the possession of the tanner, who
had had nous enough to frame it appropriately, and to
hang it on the line with a curtain in front of it. It
was a Landseer, though not, as the then owner fondly
imagined, by Edwin of that ilk.
Few painters have borne translation into black and
white so well as has Landseer (see Appendix IV.).
This is a severe test of an artist's work. Those who
object to his colouring as defective will urge that he
had less to lose at the hands of the engraver than
painters whose colour is their chiefest charm. Of
course there is some force in that, but after every
allowance has been made in this and other respects.
Sir Edwin's works are mostly very delightful to live
with. This is true, too, in spite of his curious fond-
ness for the more melancholy phases of animal life,
or for strife with death as the end of it all. " He
is not only the best animal-painter who ever lived,"
said the Daily News, in a beautiful appreciation, " but
he is of a different order from any of his predecessors in
that department of art. Where others have given us
the form, substance, and action of the animals, with
i86
Appreciation
even the masterly handling of Rubens and Snyders,
Landseer has disclosed to us the instincts of their
nature, the incidents of their experience, and the
history of their lives." In other words, rightly re-
garded, he is the Sir Walter Scott of the Animal
World.
187
Appendices,
I. The Royal Academy.
II. Authorities Consulted (constituting, in a
SENSE, A Bibliography).
III. Landseers in London Galleries.
IV. Landseers in the Auction-Room.
V. Portraits of Landseer.
VI. Landseers Named in this Book.
189
I.
The Royal Academy.
Londoners of the present generation, as well as folk living
beyond the bounds of the Metropolis, are so accustomed to
associate the Royal Academy with Burlington House, that
many readers will be surprised to learn that it only took up its
quarters there in 1869 — five years before Landseer's death. Sir
Edwin exhibited in the galleries in Piccadilly, in what will
doubtless be the Royal Academy's last home, thirteen pictures
altogether, of which, though some were good, but one (the
" Swannery Invaded by Eagles ") was of first-rate importance.
The following brief historical outline has been drawn up with
a view to preventing any misconception.
Under the active patronage and assistance of George III. the
Royal Academy was founded on the loth of December, 1768.
At first, the Schools met in rooms in Pall Mall (opening on the
2nd of January, 1769), where also the Exhibitions were held
until 1780, when the Royal Academy entered upon the tenancy
of rooms placed at its disposal by the King in the new
Somerset House, whither the schools and offices had been
removed in 1771. Here, in the Strand, the Royal Academy
remained till 1837, the year of Queen Victoria's accession,
when, its quarters in Somerset House being required for
business purposes by the Government of the day, it gave them
up in exchange for a suite of apartments in the National Gallery
in Trafalgar Square, then just completed. In course of a com-
paratively short time these rooms, too, were needed to lodge the
rapidly accumulating treasures of art belonging to the nation.
191
Sir Edwin Landseer
Thereupon the Royal Academy acquired the lease, for 999 years,
of Old Burlington House, in Piccadilly, where it built its present
home, which was opened for the first Exhibition in 1869, and
was added to in 1884.
R.A. in Somerset House, 1780 — 1837.
„ National Gallery, 1837— 1868.
„ Burlington House, 1869 — the crack of doom.
192
II.
Authorities Consulted.
1. Catalogue of the Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer,
R.A. Dedicated by special permission to Her Most
Gracious Majesty the ^Queen [Victoria]. Compiled by
Algernon Graves. London, N.D.
2. Sir Edwin Landseer. By Frederic G. Stephens. London,
1883.
3. The Studies of Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. Illustrated by
Sketches from the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen
[Victoria] and other Sources. With a History of his Art-
Life. By W, Cosmo Monkhonse. London, N.D.
4. Lectures on Painting and Design. By B. R. Haydon.
London, 1844, 1846.
5. Lectures on the Art of Engraving. Delivered at the Royal
Institution of Great Britain. By John Landseer, Engraver
to the King [George III.], and F.S.A. London, 1807.
6. My Autobiography and Reminiscences. By W. P. Frith,
R.A. London, 1887.
7- Toilers and Spinsters, and Other Essays. ■ By Anne
Thackeray. London, 1876.
8. Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, from his Autobiography
• and Journals. Edited by Tom Taylor. London, 1853.
9. Autobiographical Recollections by the late Charles Robert
i Leslie, R.A. Edited by Tom Taylor. London, i860.
10. Annals of the Fine Arts. Edited by James Elmes. Lon-
don, 1817-21.
11. The Magazine of the Fine Arts. London, 1821. (Only
I vol.)
193 o
Sir Edwin Landseer
12. Twenty[-one] Drawings of Lions, Tigers, Panthers, and
Leopards. From Originals by Rubens, Rembrandt,
Reydinger, Stubbs, Spilsbury, and Edwin Landseer.
With an Essay on the Carnivora by John Landseer.
London, 1823.
13. Monkey-ana; or, Men in Miniature. Designed and Etched
by Thomas Landseer, London, 1827.
14. The New Monthly Magazine. London, July ist, 1814.
15. Life of Sir Walter Scott. By John Gibson Lockhart,
Edinburgh, 1843.
16. Patronage of British Art : an Historical Sketch. By John
Pye. London, 1845.
17. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb
Robinson, Barrister-at-Law and F.S.A. London, 1869.
18. Modern Painters. By a Graduate of Oxford [John Ruskin].
London, 1843-60. Also the edition of 1873.
19. Vernon Heath's Recollections. London, 1892.
20. Zoological Recreations. By W. J. Broderip, F.R.S. Lon-
don, 1849.
21. The Great Painters of Christendom. By John Forbes-
Robertson. London, 1877.
22. A Century of Painters of the English School. By Richard
and Samuel Redgrave. London, 1866.
23. Dictionary of Artists of the English School. By Samael
Redgrave. London, 1878.
24. Dictionary of Painters. By Michael Bryan, Edited by
R, E. Graves. London, 1898.
25. Life of Charles Dickens. By John Forster. London,
1872-74.
26. Old and New London. By Walter Thornbury and Edward
Walford, London, 1871-77.
27. London Past and Present. By Peter Cunningham and
H. B, Wheatley, Londpn, 1891.
28. Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands
from 1848 to 1 86 1. [By Queen Victoria,] London,
1868.
39. The Dictionary of National Biography {sub "Landseer,"
by W. Cosmo Monfchouse), London, N,D.
194
Appendix II.
30. The Waverley Novels. By Sir Walter Scott. Illustrated
(based on the Abbotsford) Edition. Edinburgh, 1877.
31. Art Sales. A History of Sales of Pictures and other Works
of Art. By George Redford,F.R.C.S. 2 vols. Privately
printed. London, 1888.
32. The Year's Art. Edited by A. C. R. Carter. London,
1886 and onwards.
33. The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited by James A.
IVIanson. London, 1901. (2 vols., 1896.)
34. Catalogue of the Sheepshanks Gift. By R. Redgrave,
London, 1857.
35. Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery. British
School. London, 1901.
36. Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery of British
Art [Popularly called the Tate Gallery]. London, 1901.
37. Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Portrait Gallery.
London, 1900.
38. Catalogue of the Oil Paintings and Water Colours in the
Wallace Collection, Hertford House. London, 1901.
39. The Daily News. London, October 3, October 11, 1873.
40. The Times. London, October 2, October 13, 1873.
41. Notes and Queries. London, June 20, 1857 ; November
15, 1879.
42. The Athenxum. London, October 11, 1873; J"Iy 23,
1893-
43. The Landseer Portfolios in the Print Room, British
Museum. Besides several Written and Verbal Com-
munications (see Preface).
After the painter's death, Messrs. Henry Graves & Co. pub-
lished a set of 200 small plates of his principal works, under the
title of the "Library Edition of the Works of Sir Edwin
Landseer, R.A."
19s
III.
Landseers in London Galleries.
(N.D.=Not Described.)
THE NATIONAL GALLEI^Y.
Picture.
BONOR.
See
Page
The Sleeping Bloodhound
Jacob Bell -
8^
Dignity and Impudence -
»*
99
The Rout of Comus (on loan)
>»
123
Shoeing the Bay Mare -
It ' '
I2S
The Cavalier's Pets (or, Spaniels of
King Charles Breed)
If . . -
131
Study of a Lion (head fronting)
Thomas Hyde Hills
171
Study of a Lion (head in profile)
))
171
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM.
The Twa Dogs
John Sheepshanks
47
The Angler's Guard
S3
Sancho Panza and Dapple
S3
The Dog and the Shadow
S7
Fireside Party
68
Jack in Office
78
The Eagle's Nest -
N.D.
Highland Breakfast
,
79
The Highland Drovers' Departure -
81
Naughty Child (or, Naughty Boy) -
82
Suspense - . . .
83
Comical Dogs
J
87
196
Appendix III.
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT UXiS'EXiU— continued.
PlCTHRK.
The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner
Tethered Rams
Young Roebuck and Rough Hounds
"There's no Place like Home "
Lion
Gore House by Moonlight
The Stonebreaker's Daughter -
Lady Blessington's Dog -
Besides, on a screen, the nine drawings made when a child.
Donor.
See
Page
John Sheepshanks
89
it
99
9)
N.D.
119
Mrs. Ann de Merle •
53
John Jones -
N.D.
s»
N.D.
)»
N.D,
THE TATE GALLERY.
High Life - - - -
Low Life .....
Highland Music ....
The Hunted Stag (or. The Mountain
Torrent) - - - -
Peace - -
War
A Dialogue at Waterloo (on loan
in Dublin) ...
Highland Dogs (or. Waiting) •
Alexander and Diogenes .
The Maid and the Magpie
Scene at Abbotsford
Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale
A Distinguished Member of the
Humane Society
A Donkey and Foal (or, Mischief in
Full Play) . ' -
John Landseer, Esq., A.R. A.
Equestrian Portrait ....
Robert Vernon
99 - -
67
67
69
>j ■ "
N.D.
13s
Jacob Bell
SJ . . .
Sir Henry Tate -
139
N.D.
139
76
ISO
Newman Smith -
91
Henry Vaughan -
E. L. Mackenzie
Anonymous
49
139
198
N.B. — This last is one of the few pictures in which Sir Edwin Landseer
presumably failed to carry out his plans — at least to his own
197
Sir Edwin Lands eer
satisfaction. The painting was intended for an equestrian portrait
of Queen Victoria, but after finishing the horse and its trappings, the
artist apparently abandoned the project, for reasons which seem
tolerably obvious. Lord Cheylesmore possesses a similarly colossal
canvas by Landseer, in which, however, Her Majesty's portrait was
completed. It was amongst the last pictures on which Sir Edwin
worked, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in the year of
his death. The unfinished canvas of which we spoke was even-
tually sent to Sir John Everett Millais, who dropped Landseer's
original notion, and painted in his daughter on the horse's back in
a riding-costume of the period of Charles II., adding appropriate
accessories, like the dog and page and the background, and calling
the picture " Nell Gwynne." It is, however, also known as
"Diana Vernon" — a happier thought. Millais completed it in
1882, and a most handsome picture he made of it.
By an interesting coincidence there is also in the Tate Gallery a
"Landscape with Figures" by Frederick R. Lee, R.A., the
friend with whom Sir Edwin Landseer fell out at Redleaf over a
game at billiards. This picture was painted in 1830, and Land-
seer's aid was invoked for the figure and animals in the passage
representing a huntsman leading a white pony with a. dead stag
on its back across a ford.
THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.
Picture.
Donor.
See
Page
Sir Walter Scott . - - .
Dr. John Allen
Albert Grant
The Widow of General
C. R. Fox
75
N.D.
A^'-.S.— In the three-quarters length portrait of Landseer by Sir Francis
Grant, P.R.A., the dog's head was painted in by Sir Edwin, who
also etched the pheasants and woodcock (for game-cards for
Woburn Abbey) which accompany the pen-and-ink portrait
sketch by Grant. Both finished picture and sketch are in this
Gallery.
198
Appendix III.
THE WALLACE COLLECTION, HERTFORD HOUSE.
Picture.
Donor.
See
Page
The Arab Tent
Sir Richard Wallace
N.D.
A Highland Scene -
»»
N.D.
Miss Ellen Power, with a Bird
j»
1 20
"booking for the Crumbs that Fall
# from the Rich Man's Table"
(or. Doubtful Crumbs)
»>
N.D.
THE DIPLOMA GALLERY, BURLINGTON HOUSE.
The Faithful Hound - I The Painter -I 70
199
IV.
Landseers in the Auction-Room.
Landseer, as we have seen, was such a child in business
matters during the greater part of his career that first his father
and then Jacob Bell took his affairs under their own control.
It is understood that agents found that the latter was, like
Carlyle, "gey ill to deal wi'." Whatever prices his pictures
may have fetched at Christie's, the painter himself never
obtained any but moderate sums for them. But Bell rendered
him special service by securing the engraving rights. These
often amounted to handsome sums, for his pictures not only
were extremely popular, but also when translated into black
and white were wonderfully charming and effective. Moreover,
he was unusually fortunate in his engravers. Thomas Land-
seer, Samuel Cousins, and Charles George Lewis were amongst
the best known, and the first and last produced most plates;
but B. P. Gibbon, T. L. Atkinson, R. J. Lane, A.R.A. (on the
stone), Charles Mottram, H. T. Ryall, J. H. Watt, and J. T.
Willmore, A.R.A., rendered him with skill and sympathy. He
derived half his income from copyrights — Mr. Henry Graves
alone having paid him no less than ;£6o,coo — and painted all
his pictures with a view to black and white. Not only so, but
he not infrequently materially altered the effect of a picture
when touching the proofs. " He once told an engraver," Mr.
Algernon Graves informs me, "who had complained of the
200
Appendix IV.
extra work that had been caused by his departing from the
original, that he could never see the faults in his pictures until
they were translated, and so he improved them." From the
"touched proofs" which I have examined, even of Thomas
Landseefs plates, I have no hesitation in saying that his eye
for final effect was marvellously keen. Thus Sir Edwin lost
nothing at the hands of his engravers, and prints in excellent
condition will always command a good price. With the
originals, however, it has been rather otherwise. During the
ten years following his death, prices in the auction-room ruled
very high; but since then, speaking very generally, there has
been a " slump." Speaking less generally, however, it must also
be said that no Landseer has depreciated in value which did
not deserve to descend from an inflated to a more reasonable
figure. Not many modem painters, it may be added, have
amassed such a handsome fortune as Sir Edwin earned. His
will was proved in 1874 for ;£ 1 60,000, and re-sworn two years
later at ;£20o,ooo.
In the following table mention is made of most of the pictures
which have been sold at Christie's since i860, but no price is
quoted below " four figures."
Sir Edwin Landseer
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V.
Portraits of Landseer.
1815. — As " The Cricketer." By Master J. Hayter (see p. 30).
1816. — As the Earl of Rutland in C. R. Leslie's picture of "The
Death of Rutland" (see p. 35).
1829.— As "The Falconer." By himself (see p. 67).
1830. — By Edward Dupper.
1843.— Full-length. By Count D'Orsay.
1843.— Oval. By Count D'Orsay.
1852. — Pen and ink. By Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A. (Pre-
sented to the National Portrait Gallery in 1876, by
Charles, second Viscount Hardinge.)
1855. — Daguerreotype.
i86o(?). — Half-length, with palette. By Sir Francis Grant,
P.R.A. (Presented to the National Portrait Gallery
in 1895, by Sir Richard Quain, Bart., M.D.,
F.R.S.)
l86l(?). — Three-quarters, standing. By Sir Francis Grant,
P.R.A. (Presented to the National Portrait Gallery
in 1890, by Henri Rochefort.)
1865. — "The Connoisseurs." By himself (see p. 163.)
1 860. — Modelling a Lion in Marochetti's Studio, By John
Ballantyne, R.S.A. (Presented to the National
Portrait Gallery in 1890, by Sir William Agnew.
See p. 167.)
i865(?). — Bust. By Baron Marochetti (in the Diploma
Gallery, Burlington House).
1882.— Mural Medallion in the Crypt of St. Paul's. By Thomas
Woolner, R.A. (see p. 174).
206
Appendix VI.
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Index.
[Tie Hems quoted are titles of pictures by Landseer.'\
Academy, Royal, 191
"Adversity," 164
Albert, Prince, at fancy dress balls,
lOS
entertains Landseer, 106, 107
in Landseer's studio, 1 1 1
— - taught to etch, 104
"AlexanderandDiogenes, "102, 139
"All that Remains of the Glory of
William Smith," 64
"Alpine Mastiff," 38
"Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a
Distressed Traveller," 41
"Angler's Guard," 53
Animals in Art, i
Ansdell, Richard, 8
Apelles' horse, 3, 4
Apsley House, pictures in, 13S,
136. 137
Ardington, sketches at, 133
Ardverikie, Irescoes at, 121
" Ashburton, William, second
lord," 132
"AuldWife,"77
Authorities consulted, 193
Ballantyne, R. S. a., John,
picture of Landseer, 167
Barber, C. Burton, 9
"Beauty's Bath," 20
"Be it ever so Humble, There's
No Place like Home," 119
Bell, Jacob, 84
Bell,Jacob, extraordinary generosity
of, 156
manages Landseer's affairs, 62
takes Landseer abroad, loi
" Bell, Jacob, Esq.," 133
Berchem, Nicholas, 5
Billiards, quarrel at, 134
"Bolton Abbey in the Olden
Time," 78
Bonheur, Rosa, 6, 182
Bowls, 68
Boydell, Alderman, 12, 14
" Braemar," 15 1
" Braggart," 41
" British Boar," 29
British Institution, The, 36
Broderip, W. J., on cats, 51
Browning, Robert, 181
" Browsing," 151
"Bull and Frog," 43
Burns quoted, 47, 69
Carrington, Yates, 9
Carter, Samuel J. , 9
Cat, on the drawing of the, 51
" Cat's Paw," 50
Cave Art remains, I, 2
" Cavalier's Pets," 131
" Challenge,". 128
Chantrey, Sir Francis, mimicked,
88
" Chase, The," 163
"Chevy Chace," 56
13 P*
Sir Edwin Landseer
Cheylesmore's, Lord, drawing of
grouse by Landseer, 117
and "Flood in the High-
lands," IS7
" Children of the Mist," 147, 148
Chillingham Castle, visits to, 56,
167, 172
" Chillingham Cattle," 167
Coleman, E. J., 162
" Comical Dogs," 87
" Comus, The Rout of," 123
" Connoisseurs," 163
" Contending Group," 45
Cooke, Conrad, 133
Cooper, T. Sidney, 4, 8
Corbould, Edward, 16
" Crossing the Bridge," 81
" Cross of a Dog and Fox," 54
Cross's Menagerie, 27, 44, 45
Curling, 68
Cuyp, Albert, 4
" Dackel," 132
" Dash," 87
" Death of the Stag in Glen Tilt,"
68
"Death of the Wild Bull," 169
Decamps, Alexandre Gabriel, 6
" Deerhound and Mastiff," 132
"Deer Pass," 147
" Deerstalkers' Return," 64
Desportes, Francois, 6
" Dialogue at Waterloo," 139
Dickens, Charles, Landseer's
friendship with, 141, 149, 150
" Digging out the Otter," 137
" Dignity and Impudence," 99
Diploma Gallery, The, 70
"Distinguished Member of the
Humane Society," 91
" Dog and Shadow," 57
D'Orsay, Count, dodging the
bailiffs, 143
D'Orsay, Count, habitud of Land-
seer's studio, 178
" Drive of Deer in Glen Orchy,"
138
Eastlake, Sir Charles, election
of, 143
Elgin Marbles, 2, 33
Elmes, James, on Haydon's pupils,
32
Engravers and the R.A., 13, 14, 15
"Eos," 107
" Event in the Forest," 161
Exeter 'Change, 26, 27
"Extract from a Journal whilst at
Abbotsford," 76
"Faithful Hound," 70
" Falconer," 67
" Falconer's Son," 185
" Fatal Duel," 160
" Fighting Dogs getting Wind,"
40
" Fireside Party," 68
"Fisherman's Daughter," 185
" Flood in the Highlands," 156
Foley Street, 22
Fonblanque, fine defence of Land-
seer, 179
Forbes-Robertson, John, 7
" Forest " series, 158
Forged pictures, 185
French Hog, 29
Frescoes by Landseer, 121
Frith, W. P., anecdote of John
Landseer's deafness, 16
anecdote of Landseer and
the Iron Duke, 136
anecdote of NoUekens, 61
anecdoteof thepig-dealer.lll
congratulates Landseer on
his coming marriage, 182
on forged pictures, 185
214
Index
Frith, W. P., on Jacob Bell's art | " Harvest in the Highlands, "43, 8 1
career, 85
. on Sydney Smith's famous
anecdote, 57
paints Dickens's portrait, 142
relates John Landseer's re-
buke of his son, 96
tells how D'Orsay dodged the
bailiffs, 143
tells how Landseer was under
arrest, 91
Fuseli and his " Curly - headed
dog-boy," 34
Gaimsborough, Thomas, 6
"Geneva," 43
Gcodall; Edward, 13
Frederick, and Landseer's
lavishness with sketches, 62
at Redleaf, 74, 122, 180
Graham, Peter, 8
Grant, Sir Francis, P.R.A., 74,
164
Graves, Algernon, and the "Dis-
tinguished Member," 93
catalogue of Landseer's
works, 35
on Landseer's engravers and
engravings, 200
preparesthe Landseer Album,
"3
presents the Landseer Album
to Queen Victoria, 114
reminiscence of "Tom"
Landseer, 18
story of " Countess," 83
story of "Shoeing the Bay
Mare," 125
story of " The Maid and the
Magpie," 155
Graves, Henry, & Company, 12
"Hare and Stoat," 96
Haydon, B. R., advice to Land-
seer, 31
and Elgin Marbles, 3, 33
doctrines of, 32
services of, to Landseer, 33
story of his dishonoured
cheque, 47
Heath, Vernon, 130, 167
Herring, J. F., 8
Hessey, D.D., Rev. J. A., preaches
Landseer memorial sermon, 81,
174
" Highland Breakfast," 79
" Highland Drovers' Departure,''
81
" Highland Music," 69
" Highland Shepherd's Dog Res-
cuing a Sheep in the Snow," 81
"Highland Shepherd's Home,"
119
"Highland Whisky Still," 68, 69
Highlands of Scotland, 54
" High Life," 67
Hills, T. Hyde, manages Land-
seer's affairs, 62, 159, 177
Hogarth, William, 6
Holme Wood, Landseer ill at, 95,
170
Hunt, W. Holman, 8
" Intruder," 41
" Islay," 103, 104
"Jack in Office," 78
Jerrold, Douglas, and Landseer,
ISO
Jones, George, R.A., and the
mutinous students, 98
"Lady Louisa Russell Feeding a
Donkey," 19
"Lady with the Spaniels," 130,131
215
Sir Edwin Landseer
" Lambkin," 132
Landseer, Anna Maria, 19
Landseer, Charles, 19
Landseer, Edwin, Academician, 70
accomplishments of, 175
album o^ works by, for
Queen Victoria, 113- 1 15
Associate, 59
at home, 175, 178, 179, 180,
184
birth of, 21
Bohemianism of, 6 1
boyish drawings of, 23, 29
burial of, in St. Paul's, 173
character of, 176-181
Christian names of, 21
collaborators of, 43, 198
death of, 173
dementia of, 154, IJS
dexterity of, 132, 133
dissects lion, 44
elected P.R.A., 164
engravers of, 200
enters R. A. schools, 34
failure of eyesight of, 153
father teaches, 23, 24
first great successes of, 40, 42,
46
first pictures of, at R.A., 30
frescoes by, 121
game drawings by, 1 16
gold medallist at Paris, I48
Haydon teaches, 31-3
house of, 52
— — illnesses of, 100,163, i69. 171
illustrations by, for books, 66
industry of, 183
knighted, 113
landscape work of, 56, 1 17
love of, for animals, 179-182
personal appearance of, 175
pictures by, in London Gal-
leries, 196
Landseer, pictures by, named here-
in, 207
prices at sales, 200-5
when engraved, 186
portraits' of, 206
promotes election of East-
lake, 14S
record of, as an exhibitor,
3S-7
relations of, with Queen
Victoria, 103-115
simplicity of, in business
affairs, 62
sketches by, 63, 73, 132
social qualities of, 61, 74
society and, 49, 78, lIO,
174, 176
sportsman, 60
training of, 50
visit to Scotland, 54
visitor at R. A. schools, 96
will of, 201
wins prize of ;^ I Jo, 46
Landseer, Jessica, 19, 20
Landseer, John, Associate En-
graver, R.A., 14
birth of, 1 1
children of, 17-20
deafness of, 16
death of, 17
engraver to the King, 16
F.S.A., 15
lectures of, 13, 14, 15
marriage of, 12
rebukes Edwin, 96
takes charge of Edwin's
affairs, 62
teaches his children, 23,
24
"Landseer, John, Esq., A.R.A., '
139
Landseer scholarships, 19
Landseer, Thomas, 17
16
Index
Landseer, T., disposition of, l8
wins Isis medal, 30
"Laying Down the Law," 101
Lee, F. R., collaboration with,
198
Landseer's quarrel with, 134
Leslie, C. R., and the election of
Eastlake, 145
his " Death of Rutland," 34
visit of, to Scotland, 54
"Lion," S3
"Lion and Lamb," 172
" Lion Disturbed at his Repast,"
44
" Lion Enjoying his Repast," 44
Lions for Trafalgar Square, 165
" Lion Studies," 171
" Lioness and Bitch," 45
Log-rolling, 42
"Lorie," 103
" Lost Sheep," 140, 160
"Low Life," 67
Lyndhurst, Lord, loi
Mackenzie, Mrs., 19, 20
Macklin, the publisher, 12
Maclise, Daniel, 164
" Maid and Magpie," 155
" Man Proposes, God Disposes,"
161
"Marmosets," 119
Marochetti, Baron, 166
" Midsummer Night's Dream,"
146, 147, 170
"Mischief in Full Play," 49
Millais, Sir J. E., pictures finished
by, 137. 198
Monkey-ana, 17
" Monkey who has seen the
World," 65
"Monarch of the Glen," 146
Morland, George, 7
" Morning," 147
Mulready, 149, 179
" My Dog," 120, 18s
" My Horse," 120, 184
" My Wife," 120
"Naughty Boy," 82
Nettleship, J. T., 8
"Night," 147
NoUekens and the Prince Regent,
61
" None but the Brave deserve the
Fair," 95
" Odin," 132
" Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner,"
89. 90, 91. 174
" Otter and Salmon," 122
" Ottey Speared," 124
Oudry, Jean Baptiste, 6
Paganini, sketches of, 63
Farrhasius, 4
Paton, Sir Noel, 147
"Peace," 134
" Pen, Brush, and Chisel," 88
Pidcock's Wild Beast Show, 26
" Piper and Pair of Nutcrackers,"
162
"Pixie," 178
" Poacher's Bothy," 77
Polito's Wild Beast Show, 27
Portugal, King of, introduced to
Landseer, 57
Potter, Paul, 5
Potts, Miss (Landseer's mother), 12
Power, Miss, 120, 130
" Prince George's Favourites," 87
"Princess Alice with Eos," loj
"Prosperity," 164
" Protection — Hen and Chickens,"
18S
" Prowling Lion," 44
"Ptarmigan Hill," 171
217
Sir Edwin Landseer
Pye, John, 13
on William Smith, 64
QuBEN — see Victoria, Queen
Queen Anne Street East, 22
" Random Shot," 138
"Rat-Catchers," 45
" Red Deer," 167
Redleaf, rat and dog fight at, 122
Redleaf Scribblers' Book, 58, 63,
73. 123
Renaissance, 3
Replicas, 184
"Return from Hawking,'' 184
Riedinger, John Elias, 5
Ritchie, Mrs. Richmond, describes
Landseer's last days, 172
first sight of Landseer, 106
on Landseer's grand style of
living, no
Robinson, Henry Crabb, 15
Rogers', Samuel, " Italy," 67
and the " Distinguished
Member," 93
Ronner, Henriette, 5
Rosebery, Lord, on Haydon, 33
Ruskin, John, on " Low Life," 67
on "Shoeing the Bay Mare,"
126
on "The Old Shepherd's
Chief Mourner," 89, 90
on "The Otter Speared,"
124
on "The Random Shot,"
138
" Rustic Beauty," 69, 185
St. Paul's Cathedral, crypt of, 173
"Sancho Panza and Dapple," 53
"Sanctuary, The," 119
"Saved," 150
" Scene at Abbotsford," 76
Scott, Sir Walter, 55
Landseer's illustrations for
Waverley Novels of, 67
on Landseer's dogs, 76
thanks Landseer in his Pre-
face, 76
"Scott, Sir Walter," 75
" Scott, Sir Walter, seated in the
Rhymer's Glen," 76
Scribblers' Book, The, 73
Sheepshanks, John, 79
" Shepherd's Bible, The," 132
"Shepherd's Grave, The," 90
" Shoeing the Bay Mare," 125
"Sick Monkey," 171
"Sleeping Bloodhound," 83
Smith's, Sydney, jokes, 57, 58
Snyders, Franz, 4
Society of British Artists, 37
Society of Painters in Oil and
Water Colours, 37
Spring Gardens, 37
"Stag at Bay," 138, 165
Stag, Landseer and the, 181
Stalking, 68, 158
Stanfield, Clarkson, 148
Stephens, F. G., description of
Landseer's altered looks, 157
on John Landseer as major
domo, S3
on Landseer's Associateship,
S9
on the " Swannery," 170
Stephenson's, Robert, strange pre-
ference, 148
Strange, Sir Robert, 13
" Study of a Lion," 44
" Suspense," 83
Swan, J. M., 8
" Swannery invaded by Eagles,"
170
Tankerville, Earl of, 168
18
Index
" Tapageur," 46
Tate, Sir Henry, 150
Taylor, Tom, and the Lions, 166
"Tethered Rams," 99
Thackeray, drawing for, 66
• friendship with Landseer,
109, 143
"There's Life in the Old Dog
yet," 94
"To-Ho,"37, 46
Tower of London, menagerie in, 27
Trafalgar Square, 165
"Trim," 75
Troyon, Constant, 6
Turner, sketches of, 63
" Twa Dogs, The," 47
"Twins, The," 148
"Uncle Tom and his Wife for
Sale," 150
"Van Amburgh and his Lions,"
13s
Vernet, Horace, 6, I Jo
Vernon, Robert, 129
Victoria, Queen, and Landseer's
frescoes, 121
at the fancy balls, 105
effect of her friendship on
Landseer, II2
equestrian portrait of, 107,
198
interest in Landseer's paint-
ing, 107
in the Highlands, 106, 121
keeps the Deer-book, 107
kindness to Landseer in his
last illness, 172, 173
Landseer Album for, 113
learns etching, 104
Victoria, Queen, regard for Land-
seer, 103, 113
" Vixen," 19
" Wait till he rise," 160
"War,"i3S
Ward, James, 7
Weir, Harrison, 9
Welch, Lucy Kemp, 8
"Well-bred Sitters that never say
they are Bored," 162
Wellington, a commission from,
I3S
as an art patron, 136
as an art critic, 137, 139
at Vauxhall, 142
Wells, Lady Louisa, 95
William, of Holme Wood,
152
" Wells, William, Esq., of Holme
Wood," 133
Wells, William, of Redleaf, 73
Wemyss, Earl of,' as model for
"Otter Speared," 125
fresco of, by Landseer, 121
on landscape effects, 117
persuades Landseer to design
a target, 163
" White Horse in a Stable," 41
" Who's to have the Stick?" 53
" Widow, The," 56
Wilkie, Sir David, alleged jealousy
of, 40
Wimbledon, The Running Deer
at, 163
Woolner's, R.A., T., mural monu-
ment to Landseer, 174
Wouvermans, Philip, 5
Zeuxis, 4
219
THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD., NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.
