SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



germ of that talent which, for more than half a century, has been productive of such 

 valuable and attractive fruits, but how soon in his career Landseer began to give some 

 feature of character to his animal-world beyond mere portraiture. Grazing in a 

 meadow, the horse has come suddenly upon a snake, which rears its head at him. 

 With instinctive fear of the reptile the former starts and stops, involuntarily raising 

 one of his fore-legs ; his mane hangs wildly, and his eyes are fixed on the snake as if 

 fascinated. The action is quite truthful ; and, if exception be taken to some parts of 

 the drawing, which are certainly defective, it must be remembered that the picture 

 is the work of a juvenile hand. 



In 1818, Landseer exhibited at the Gallery of the Society of Painters in Oil and 

 Water Colours, in Spring Gardens, a picture, " Fighting Dogs getting Wind," which 

 attracted much notice, and found a purchaser in Sir George Beaumont, an acknow- 

 ledged art-connoisseur and patron. This work having been engraved by the painter's 

 father, made the young artist's name widely known. The year following there appeared 

 at the British Institution a far more important work, " Dogs of Mount St. Gothard 

 discovering a Traveller in the Snow;" this also was engraved by the elder Landseer. 

 It was in the possession of the late Mr. Gillott, of Birmingham. When his collection 

 was sold last year, it realised the sum of 1,740 guineas, Mr. Addington being the 

 purchaser. "Pointers, so ho!" exhibited at the British Institution in 1821, was in the 

 same sale, and became the property of Messrs. Agnew for 1,900 guineas. Acting 

 upon Haydon's suggestions, he took advantage, in 1820, of the death of a lion at a 

 menagerie in London, to study the anatomy of the animal, and subsequently painted 

 several pictures of the " king of beasts;" as " A Lion Disturbed," "A Lion Repos- 

 ing," "A Lion Prowling," &c. One of this class of works, "A Dead Lion," was a 

 few years since In the collection of Mr. William Russell, of Chesham Place, who was 

 also the owner of another picture by the same hand, representing a dog with dead 

 game and a white hare beside It. 



During the next three or four years Landseer exhibited at the Academy portraits of 

 favourite dogs, and "Taking a Buck." His "Larder Invaded," sent to the British 

 Institution in 1822, gained from the Directors their prize of £1^0. He had also found 

 a warm friend and patron In the Duke of Bedford, of whose son, the young Lord 

 Cosmo Russell, he painted a portrait, which was exhibited in 1825 : the boy is repre- 

 sented galloping a Highland pony in a hilly tract of country. At the sale, in i860, 

 of a portion of the collection of the late Mr. Wells, of Redleaf, a picture called " Lord 

 Alexander Russell 'on a Highland Pony," was sold for 825 guineas. It may be 

 presumed that this was also painted for the duke, but how it came into the hands of 

 Mr. Wells I have no knowledge. Small lithographic prints of both, by the late 

 R. J. Lane, A-R-A., were published in 1832. 



In 1825 or 1826 Landseer paid his first visit to the Highlands of Scotland ; from this 



