IN HAFDON'S STUDIO. 



and disposition as closely as their anatomical points ; hence laying the foundation of < 

 those various qualities which so many of his most admired pictures show as examples of 

 mental development in the animal-world. In the South Kensington Museum may be 

 seen examples of these very early works ; some of them, it is said, done when he was 

 but five or six years old. At the age of fourteen he entered the schools of the Royal 

 Academy, though- in the preceding year he had exhibited there "Portrait of a Mule," 

 and " Portraits of a Pointer Bitch and Puppy," entered in the catalogue as "by Master 

 E. Landseer, 33, Foley Street : " he also supplied, about the same time, similar subjects 

 for the Sporting Magazine, which were engraved by his brother Thomas. The Elgin 

 Marbles, then at Burlington House, but now in the British Museum, were carefully 

 studied by Edwin at this period of his life. 



In the same year, 1815, he had studied under that most unfortunate painter, B. R. 

 Haydon, or, perhaps, it should rather be said, the latter advised him as to his work. In 

 Haydon's Autobiography he says : — 



"In 1 8 1 5, Mr. Landseer, the engraver, had brought his boys to me, and said, * When do 

 you let your beard grow, and take pupils ? ' I said, ' If my instructions are useful or valuable, 

 now.' ' Will you let my boys come ? ' I said, ' Certainly.' Charles and Thomas, it was 

 immediately arranged, should come every Monday, when I was to give them work for the / 

 week. Edwin took my dissections of the lion, and I advised him to dissect animals — the only / 

 mode of acquiring their construction, as I had dissected men, and as I should make his brothers 

 do. This very incident generated in me the desire to form a school ; and as the Landseers 

 made rapid progress, I resolved to communicate my system to other young men, and endeavour 

 to establish a better and more regular system of instruction than even the Academy afforded." 



In Haydon's Diary under the date June i,, 1831, is the following entry : — 



" Since I last wrote, poor Jackson is gone.* A more amiable, inoffensive man never lived. 

 He had a fine eye for colour, but not vast power, and could not paint women. He is the first 

 of the three to go.f Grod protect him. It is curious what a set came in together under Fuseli : J 

 — ^Wilkie, Mulready, Collins, Pickersgill, Jackson, Etty, Hilton, and myself. I have produced 

 Landseer, Eastlake, Lance, and Harvey ; Wilkie, the whole domestic school." 



As an example of the young student's power of drawing animals, the engraving, 

 " Startled ! " here introduced will serve. The plate bears in the imprint a date, which, 

 however, cannot be actually verified ; and I am inclined to think the original sketch, for 

 it is little more, must have been made previously to 18 19. In the composition the horse 

 is made the chief, indeed, the only point of attraction ; but one sees in it not merely the 



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

 for his male portraits are remarkably vigorous. 



■j- The other two were Wilkie and himself: the trio formed a friendship when students at the Academy. 

 X Fuseli was then Keeper of the Academy. 



