789 



LANDSEER, JOHN. 



LANDSEER, SIR EDAVIN, R.A. 



730 



subversion of the constitution which the Spaniards had framed for 

 themselves during their struggle for independence, Mr. Landoi 

 resigned his commission, and declared that though " willing to aid thi 

 Spanish people in the assertion of their liberties against the autagoniai 

 of Europe, he would have nothing to do with a perjurer and a traitor.' 

 In 1815, after the fall of Napoleon (having in the year 1811 marriec 

 Julia Thuillier, of Bath, a lady of Swiss extraction), he removed to 

 Italy, and purchased a mansion close to Florence, with estates in th 

 neighbourhood. Here, with the exception of occasional tours, in 

 eluding some visits to England, he remained for more than thirty 

 years; and here his family, of three sous and one daughter, stiL 

 reside, Mr. Landor allowing them the possession of most of what 

 remains of his once ample fortune, and retaining but little for himself. 



The period of Mr. Laudor's residence in Italy was the period of his 

 greatest literary productiveness. In 1820 there appeared from the 

 press of Pisa his Latin work entitled 'Idyllia Heroica,' with an 

 appended Latin dissertation on the causes why recent Latin poets 

 were so little read. In 1824-29 there was published in London in five 

 volumes, that which ia perhaps his greatest and most original work 

 his ' Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen.' Sub- 

 sequent works were a new edition of his ' Gcbir, Count Julian, and 

 other Poems," in 1831; 'Letters of a Conservative, in which are 

 shown the only means of saving what is left of the English Church,' 

 1836; 'A Satire on Satirists and Admonition to Detractors,' 1836; 

 ' The Pentameron and Pentalogue,' 1837 ; and ' Andrea of Hungary 

 and Giovanni of Naples/ dramas, published in 1S39. On the whole 

 Mr. Landor' a poetry was less appreciated than his prose. His ' Imagi- 

 nary Conversations ' from the first rivetted public attention by the 

 novelty of their form, their masculine and yet rather singular English 

 style, and the bold and often paradoxical nature of their opinions ; 

 and in virtue of this work alone, had he written nothing else, many 

 would assign Mr. Landor one of the highest places among the English 

 prose-writers of his age. Mr, Emerson, who visited Mr. Landor at 

 Florence in 1833, gives an interesting description of him at that time, 

 when he was yet in the prime of his strength, " I had inferred from 

 his books," >ays Mr. Emerson, " or magnified from so:ne anecdotes, 

 an impression of Achillean wr.ith an untameable petulance. I do 

 not know whether the imputation was just or not, but certainly on 

 this day his courtesy veiled that haughty mind, and he was the most 



patient and gentle of hosts He carries to its h* i.jht the love 



uf freak which the English delight to indulge, as if to signalise their 

 commanding freedom. He has a wonderful br.un, despotic, violent, 

 inexhaustible, meant fur a i-ol'licr, by what chance converted to 

 letters, in which there is not a style nor a tint not known, to him, 

 vet with an English appetite for action and heroes." 



During the last few years, Mr. Landor, who had almost become a 

 naturalised Itilian, has resided iu England chiefly at Bath. Here 

 he takes a vehement interest ia whatever goes on abroad ; and fre- 

 quently pens powerful letters or pungent epigrams on topics of 

 foreign politics. Hating tyranny in every shape, he has more than 

 once declared himself through the press a believer in the old Koinan 

 doctrine of tyrannicide. But it is not merely in casual corn; 

 tions to the newspapers that be has expressed the thoughts and 

 feelings of his observant and still impassioned old age. The following 

 works, some political and others literary, have proceeded from hi.-; 

 pen during the last ten years : ' The Hellenics, enlarged and com- 

 pleted,' 1-47; 'Imaginary Conversation of King Carlo Alberto and 

 the Duchess Belgioioso on the Affairs and Prospects of Italy,' 1848; 

 ' Poernata et Inscriptiones,' a new and enlarged edition, 1847 ; 

 Popery, British and Foreign,' 1851 ; 'Tho Last Fruit off an Old Tree,' 

 1853 ; and ' Letters of an American ' (published under the pseudonym 

 of 1'ottinger), 1854. Mr. Landor still survives among us, a wonderful 

 literary veteran, in his eighty second year. 



LANDSEER, JOHN, Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy, 

 was born at Lincoln iu 1769. He learnt engraving under Byrne, a 

 landscape-engraver of much ability; as early as 1793 acquired some 

 celebrity by engraving some vignettes, after Loutherbourg, for MaclUe's 

 Bible ; and increased his reputation by engravings executed for Bowyer's 

 ' History of England ' and Moure's ' Views in Scotland.' Mr. Laudseer 

 also published an excellent series of engravings of animals from the 

 works of Rubens, Snyders, Gilpin, and other eminent artists. In IsO'J 

 Mr. Landseer delivered a course of lectures on engraving at the Royal 

 Institution, which were published iu the following year, and excited 

 some discussion in the profession on account of gome peculiar views 

 promulgated in them. In the same year he was elected an Associate 

 Engraver in the Royal Academy. The subordinate position assigned 

 to engravers in the Academy they not being admitted under any 

 circumstances into full membership was the source of considerable 

 ill-feeling among engravers, and the post of associate engraver had 

 been refused by several eminent engravers when Mr. Landseer accepted 

 it. He announced however that he had only done so iu the hope of 

 being able to labour at a greater advantage in striving to remove the 

 obnoxious restriction. Accordingly lie memorialised the president and 

 council on the subject, but after a year or two of correspondence and 

 controversy the chum was rejected. Landseer's mortification is said 

 to have beea so great a* to have disgusted him iu a great measure with 

 his profession itself, bat, whether this be so or not, he appears from 

 this time to Lave engraved comparatively little. The literary tastes 



however which lecturing and controversy had aroused, he seems to 

 have cultivated. Delighting in controversy, he started an art periodical, 

 which soon died ; and one he set on foot long after to counteract tho 

 mild influence of the ' Art Journal,' under the title of ' The Probe," 

 soon shared a like fate. He published likewise, at various times, several 

 pamphlets and letters. In 1817 he communicated to the Society of 

 Antiquaries a paper on ' Engraved Gems brought from Babylon,' which 

 was printed in the ' Archseologia,' voL xviii. Although possessing little 

 of the requisite learning- or mental training for the successful prose- 

 cution of such a subject, he continued to follow the game thus started; 

 and after having delivered a course of lectures on ' Engraved Hiero- 

 glyphics ' at the Royal Institution, ha in 1823 published an elaborate 

 volume entitled 'Sabsean Researches.' This was followed in 1834 by 

 a gossipping volume called ' A Descriptive, Explanatory, ami Critical 

 Catalogue of the Earliest Pictures in the National Gallery,' which, 

 though of no more value aesthetically than his previous works were 

 archjeolo^ically, ia yet in its discursiveness a somewhat amusing volume. 

 But it ia rather as tho father of Edwin Landseer than oil his own 

 account that Mr. John Landseer will be remembered ; and it is note- 

 worthy that one of his best engravings, the ' Dogs of Mount St. Bernard,' 

 is from one of Edwin Landseer's earliest pictures. Sir. Landseer died 

 on the 29th of February 1852 in hia eighty-third year, leaving three 

 sons, all of whom have won an honourable, and oce a pre-eminent, 

 place in the history of English art. 



* THOMAS LANDSEEK, the eldest son of John Landseer, adopted his 

 fathers profession, but practised mezzotint iu place of line-engraving. 

 He is best known by his engravings of his brother Edwin's pictures, 

 many of which are executed in a broad and painter-like style, and with 

 great mastery over the scraper. He has nl-io executed a good deal 

 with the etching-needle, and a series of etchings of monkeys from his 

 own drawings, published under the title of ' Monkeyana,' had consider- 

 able popularity. Mr. Landseer is at present engaged on a large engraving 

 of Rosa Bouheur'a famous ' Horse-Fair,' a work which affords peculiar 

 facilities for the display of his characteristic excellences as an engraver. 



* CHARLES LANDSEEU, R.A., was dedicated, like his brother, to the 

 service of art. Along with Thomas ho became a pupil of Haydou, by 

 whom he was regarded with much interest, and hid progress used to 

 be regularly chronicled in the pages of Eltnes's ' Annals of the Fine 

 Art-!.' From the first Mr. Charles Landseer held a respectable position 

 a? a painter. Well instructed iu the technicalities of his profession, a 

 good eolourist, careful in composition, and correct in costiimj, his 

 pictures, illustrative of domestic history and the popular poets and 

 novelists, have always had a fair share of popularity, without attaining 

 any very eminent auccesi. He was elected an Associate of tho 1 loyal 

 Academy in 1837, Academician iu 1S45, and Keeper in 1851. 



* LANDSEKR, SIR EDWIN, It. A., like hia brothers Thomas and 

 Chai-l-c, waa trained from childhood with a view to his becoming an 

 aitist; and he very early displayed extraordinary skill in drawing and 

 facility iu seizing the characteristic features uf the object he was set 

 to imitate. The direction of his education iu art was undertaken by 

 his father, who, as soon as the boy was able to use his pencil with some 

 reidiuess, used to carry him out into the fields or on to Hampstead 

 Heath his first academy and make him sketch the sheep, goats, or 

 donkeys, as they were grazing there at liberty, instead of copying a 

 print, or drawing from a plaster model. A similar plan was followed 

 when he began to use his colours, and the consequence was that, while 

 a mere boy, Edwin Landsuer was able to paint directly from nature 

 with the readiness and precision of an experienced artist. Indeed he 

 lad hardly emerged from boyhood when we find him asserting and 

 making good his claim to a place among tho artists of his day. Even 

 at the age of fourteen he exhibited portraits and sketches of terriers, 

 spaniels, a puppy, a horse and cat, &c. ; and at the Exhibition in Spring 

 wardens iu 1819, when Edwin Landseer waa only sixteen, he had a 

 picture entitled 'Dogs Fighting,' which attracted very general attention : 

 ,t was purchased by Sir George Beaumont, then the acknowledged head 

 of the patrons and connoisseurs of art in England, and propoaala were 

 at once issued by his father for engraving it. Before the public interest 

 lad time to abate, it waa announced in the art periodicals of the day 

 >y Mr. Landseer, senior who was indefatigable in setting forth his 



sou's abilities that Edwin Landseer had an "exquisite picture ou 

 land for the next exhibition of the British Institution, the best he has 

 minted, and by far the most interesting ; it is two Mount St. Gothard 

 mastiffs discovering a poor traveller half-buried in the enow :" and the 

 announcement, after expatiating on its merits, concludes " the subject 

 s very touching, and we have not the slightest doubt of its making a 

 jreat impression." When exhibited the picture did make a great 

 mpression, and the engraving from it the best Landseer's father ever 

 executed was extremely popular. 



Of such success at so early an age for the young painter waa only 

 u his eighteenth year when he painted his ' Dogs of St. Gothard ' we 

 mow of no other example in the biography of English artists ; and it 

 s noticeable that it was attained almost exactly iu the way and by the 

 means through which his latest triumphs have been achieved the 

 Bipression of sentiment in animals. It might well have been feared 

 -hat such early success would have the effect of rendering the young 

 artist impatient of further study, and that his fate would be that 

 which so often befals precocious talent ; but happily no such ill-con- 

 equeuce ensued. Edwin Laii-ls :tr, wo believe, never became properly 



