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L.VNDSEER. SIR EDWIN, R.A. 



LANFRANC. 



702 



a pupil of KiiytloD, like Lin brother*, but be for a time looked chiefly 

 to him for advic*, and undrr hi* guidance completed a oouno of ana- 

 tomioal investigation, hit ' subjects ' however consisting of animal 

 hrrrnH of human bodies ; and under him he aUo made studies from the 

 Elfin marbtf*. lie likewise drew in the schools of the Hoyal Academy. 



It was owing to the suggestion of Haydon that about this time 

 0820) he availed hinuelf of the opportunity afforded by the death of 

 a lion at one of the London menageries to make a number of careful 

 drawings and directions of that animal, and the result appeared in a 

 tin of pictures entitled ' A Lion Disturbed,' ' A Lion Prowling,' ' A 

 Lion Reposing,' Ac.; yet though these were much admired, we do 

 not recollect his returning to his leonine studies till more than twenty 

 wars later, when the Duke of Wellington commissioned him to paint 

 'Van Amburgh and bU Lions ' (1847), which, though one of his largest, 

 was by no means one of his best pictures. The earlier paintings of 

 Landsttr, while sufficiently free from any pettynees of manner, were 

 characterised by extreme carefulness in all the details; the first 

 approach to a broader and more masculine style of execution seems to 

 hare followed a visit to the Highlands, which had a decided influence 

 on his method of execution aud.choice of subjects. His acquaintance 

 with the grander features of nature appeared to impart largeness of 

 view ; though bis election as Associate of the Royal Academy about 

 the same time (1827, the earliest period at which, according to the 

 laws of that institution, his election could take place) may have served 

 to strengthen his self-reliance : he became R.A. in 1830. The first of 

 his Highland subjects, ' The Return from Deer-Stalking,' appeared 

 in 1827. From that time nearly every exhibition of the Royal Academy 

 afforded him a new triumph. Among the uiost attractive of his sub- 

 sequent work* may be noted 'The Illicit Whiskey-Still' (1829); 

 Highland JIusic ' (1830), now one of the gems of the Vernon collec- 

 tion ; and a poetic rendering of the incident of the dog watching beside 

 his master's corpse on Helvellyn, which Wordsworth and Rogers have 

 immortalised in verse. 'Poachers Deer-Stalking' appeared in 1831 ; 

 and in 1833 ' The Jack in Office,' one of the earliest works in which he 

 showed how rich a vein of humour lay concealed under canine habits 

 and physiognomy, and which he more amply displayed in his ' Laying 

 Down the Law* (1840), and 'High Life* and 'Low Life,' now in the Ver- 

 non Gallery. To 1833 also belonged his clever picture of 'Sir Walter 

 Scott and his Dogs ;' and the next year saw one of the moat popular of 

 his pictures, ' Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time,' which, though it baa a 

 somewhat artificial air in the engravings, and perhaps would hardly 

 appear to advantage in a public gallery, as it hangs in its splendid 

 domicile at Cbatsworth wins general admiration. 'A Scene in the Gram- 

 pian- the Drover's Departure,' one of Lanileeer's moat important works, 

 and well known by the admirable line-engraving by Watts, appeared 

 in 1835. In 1837 was exhibited the 'Return from Hawking,' and a 

 smaller but far more beautiful work one of those which bears the 

 unmistakeable impress of genius 'The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner' 

 a sheep dog watching by his master's coffin. The next year (1838) 

 was especially rich in important works, it iucluding the finest portrait 

 ever painted of a Newfoundland dog, ' A Distinguished Member of the 

 Humane Society,' ' The Life's in the Old Dog yet,' and one of the most 

 striking of his unrivalled representations of the red-deer ' None but 

 the Brave de-erve the Fair.' ' Laying Down the Law,' appeared in 

 1840 ; ' Otter and Salmon,' and the ' Highland .Shepherd's Home,' in 

 1842; 'The Otter Speared,' and ' Coming Events cast their Shadows 

 before them,' in 1844 ; the 'Shepherd's Prayer,' in 1845; 'Peace,' 

 'War' (two of the leading pictures in the Vernon Gallery), and a 

 Stag at Bay,' in 1846; 'The Drive Shooting Deer on the Pass,' 

 1847 ; a picture of singular pathos ' The Random Shot,' and a most 

 characteristic portrait of 'My Father,' in 1848; 'The Forester's Family,' 

 and an 'Evening Scene in the Highlands,' in 1849; 'A Dialogue at Water- 

 loo' in I860 ; 'A Scene from the Midsummer Night's Dream' (another 

 of his most original productions), in 1851 ; ' Night ' and ' Morning 'a 

 stag fiVht with its fatal result and another marvellous Highland 

 scene, 'The Children of the Mist,' 1853; 'Royal Sports on Hill and 

 Dale' (a royal commission), 1854 ; and ' Saved,' a wondrous specimen 

 of executive skill, and ' Highland Nurses Dedicated to Miss Nightin- 

 gale,' in 185C. Of the shoals of mere portraits of dogs, horses, children, 

 and macaws, it is unnecessary to take notice. 



Sir Edwin Landseer is unquestionably the greatest modern painter 

 of animals. In many respects be is unsurpassed, if equalled, by the 

 painters of any time. HU executive skill approaches as nearly as possi- 

 ble to perfection. Alone almost among the living painters of Europe, 

 his works suggest no thought of paint or pencil. Precisely the effect 

 he intended always appears to be produced, ami that without effort or 

 misadventure. Whatever be the animal he depicts, its form and 

 colour the exact degree of roughness, smoothness, or softness of its 

 covering its age its savage or courtly training all are rendered 

 with unmirtakeable fidelity ; and it is dono in the simplest, most 

 direct, and wholly unexaggeratcd manner. Nor is this executive 

 master}' attained by constantly repeating the same range of animals 

 and attitudes. His variety, on the contrary, U as remarkable as his 

 facility; and both are evidently the result of long-continued am 

 familiar observation. And further, he for the first time has shown o 

 what a wonderful range of expression the animal physiognomy iscapa 

 ble. Every dog, and every deer, has its own character and its own 

 expression; and sadness, misery, satisfaction, and drollery, the passions 



and the feeling*, the hopes and the fears, are shown to belong as much 

 almost to the countenance of a dog as of a man. Sentiment and 

 >thos were never before BO evoked by representations of animal 

 nature, probably never even quiet humour, or sharp satire ; and the 

 accompaniments are almost invariably as admirably paint. .1 as are 

 he animals, though of course never so rendered as to imperil tip ir 

 supremacy. Highland scenery, for example, though only subordinate 

 to the stags and dogs, to our thinking has never been so grandly 

 characterised as by Landseer's pencil. But there are limits to every man's 

 ichievemeuta, and Landseer is no exception. In none of his works bos 

 le called forth the higher powers of imagination. While in technical 

 inowledge and executive skill he has never been > It may 



airly be questioned whether he has ever painted animals in a man- 

 ler requiring such an exercise of mind as those painted by Titian, 

 llubens, and Snyders. Even the more serious technical difficulties 

 10 has evaded. An instance probably can hardly be pointed out in 

 which he has represented an animal fairly in motion, and certainly 

 none in violent action as Snyders loved to paint them, or in the full 

 tide of enjoyment as we may see them represented by Rubens. Occa- 

 sionally Laudseer advances so far as to depict the moment of an 

 arrested action or struggle as in the instance of his stag-fights; or 

 where a position can be for a time fixed, as with the dogs pawing up 

 about the keeper who has spared the otter ; but beyond that he does 

 not venture. Reflecting upon the capabilities of art, we feel that 

 Landseer, with his marvellous executive skill and great mental vigour, 

 might have done much greater things than he has accomplished ; but 

 looking over what he has effected, we cannot but feel that he is not 

 only one of the chief ornaments of the English school of painting, 

 I iut that he must take rank, in his own walk, among the great p:> 

 of every age and country. 



Beyond probably every other painter of any country has Sir Edwin 

 Landseer been fortunate in the number of his works which have been 

 engraved during his lifetime. It would be impossible to give a list of 

 them, hardly one of his more important pictures having failed to find 

 an engraver either in line or mezzotint, while some (like his ' Uoltou 

 Abbey ') have been engraved more than once. Sir Edwin has himself 

 also etched a few of his sketches, and made a few lithographic copies 

 of others ; and, having mentioned his sketches, we may add, that 

 whether executed in colours or with the crayon, his original sketches 

 are almost unrivalled for spirit and vigour. Nor ought we to omit to 

 mention that, though he did not pursue the art fur, a few trial pictures 

 he executed in fresco showed that he possessed full mastery over that 

 somewhat intractable material. It only remains to odd, as a proof 

 that the ability of Sir Edwin Landseer is recognised beyond the limits 

 of his own country, that at the Exposition Universelle of 1S55 a 'large 

 gold medal' was awarded to him, being the only instance in which a 

 medal of that class was given to an English artist 



There is of course no work of Sir Edwin Laudseer's in our National 

 Gallery ; but the Vernon collection fortunately possesses several of 

 the more excellent of his smaller pictures ' Peace' and ' War,' ' High 

 Life' and 'Low Life,' ' Highland Music,' 'Spaniels of King Charles II.' 

 (a common-place portrait piece), and ' The Dying Stag.' 



LANFRANC, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born in 1005 at Pavia, 

 where he was instructed in grammar and logic. After the death of 

 his father, who was a counsellor to the senate of that town, he spent 

 some years in the study of rhetoric and civil law at Bologna, whence 

 he returned to his native city, and commenced as advocate in the courts 

 of law. Thinking this too narrow a sphere, he removed into France, 

 and opened a school at Avrauches, which was soon crowded with 

 students of high rank. In a journey to Rouen he ha<l the misfortune 

 to be robbed and left bound in a wood, where he was found the next 

 morning by some peasants, who carried him almost dead to the abbey 

 of Bee. Here he was treated with so much tenderness, that when he 

 recovered he became a monk in that abbey (1041). At the end of 

 three years he was chosen prior of Bee. Here he entered into a long 

 and violent controversy with Bereuger, archdeacon of Aiigcra and 

 master of the academy of Tours, on the subject of the Etui 

 which, at that day made no little noise in the church, His fame 

 ultimately procured him the favour of his sovereign, William duke of 

 Normandy, who made him one of his counsellors, employed him in 

 an important embassy to the pope, and appointed him, in 1002, abbot 

 of bis newly-erected monastery of St. Stephen at Caen. Here he 

 established a new academy, which became no less famous than thoau 

 which he had before set up at Avranches and Bee. When the see of 

 Canterbury became vacant by the deposition of Stigand, William, who 

 bad effected the conquest of England, procured his election to that see, 

 August 15, 1070, and with some difficulty prevailed upon him to accept 

 the station. To the church of Canterbury he proved a great bene- 

 factor, by asserting its right to the primacy of England, by recovering 

 many of its possessions, and by rebuilding the cathedral. During a 

 large portion of the reign of William the Conqueror, Lanfranc enjoyed 

 a high degree of favour; and his firmness and prudence secured the 

 cosy accession of William Unfits. During the short remainder of hi* 

 life, Laufrauc had the chief direction of affairs, both in church and 

 state. He died May 28, 1039, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 



Several of our historians who were almost his contemporaries speak 

 in very advantageous terms of the genius and erudition of Lanfranc ; 

 and some of them, who were personally acquainted with him, repre- 



