54 ANIMAL PAINTERS 



find in A^inals of Sporting engravings by Thomas 

 Landseer from three shooting subjects, " Toho ! " a 

 brace of setters, " Down Charge," and " Pheasant 

 Shooting with Springers." The first of these is 

 here reproduced as an example of his early sporting 

 pictures. 



Landseer's contributions to the sporting publica- 

 tions of the time were comparatively few ; the 

 Annals of Sporting contains thirteen plates from 

 his pictures and the Netv Sporfiyig Magazine only 

 four ; while the volumes of the Sporting Magazine 

 do not contain a single engraving from a work 

 by him. Volume v. of the Annals of Sporting 

 (1824) contains the engraving by Thomas Land- 

 seer, from a portrait of Brutus, which is repro- 

 duced facing page 70 : it may be remarked that 

 the letter-press which accompanies the plate dwells 

 entirely upon the merits of the dog, and makes no 

 reference whatever to the status of his master as 

 an artist, at a period when he was rapidly making 

 a name for himself. It was in this year that he 

 exhibited at the British Institution his picture, 

 " The Catspaw " (a cat struggling in the clutches 

 of an ape who uses her paw to pull chestnuts from 

 the stove), which fairly established the reputation 

 for humour maintained by so many subsequent 

 pictures. This work, like others by Landseer, has 

 been made the basis of political caricature. 



