THE SHEPHERD'S PRAYER. 



bravely and menacingly above the surface of the lake, through whose depths he 

 rapidly ploughs his way, with the thickly-clustered stars twinkling above him. It is, 

 in truth, a painted poem; and the episode of the two pine-trees fallen in the snow- 

 typifying the prostration of the two combatants— the branches of one tree standing up 

 and out like the antlers of the stag, whose shadow seems moving over the sheeted 

 ground, is very fine. The idea of the pair of forest-chieftains meeting alone in the 

 twilight and silence of the night is grand; and the manner in which it is carried out 

 is as fine as the conception. The picture is engraved by H. F. Walker. 



Landseer's fourth and last exhibited picture of 1844 was " Shoeing," bequeathed to 

 the nation by the late Mr. Jacob Bell, and now in the National Gallery. The scene is 

 the interior of a farrier's shop, in which a man is putting a shoe on the hind foot of a 

 bay horse, which is most beautifully painted as to texture of skin. The animal is the 

 portrait of " Old Betty," a favourite of its owner ; and she stands in a way that was 

 peculiar to it when undergoing this operation, and without a halter, for it would not 

 permit itself to be fastened up. The farrier, the donkey, and the bloodhound, are also 

 portraits. There is a fine engraving, by C. Lewis, from the picture. 



Four small works were contributed by Landseer to the British Institution in 1845 • — 

 " Decoy- man's Dog and Ducks." Here the dog is left in charge of the birds, which lie 

 around him : the ducks are skilfully drawn, and their plumage is exquisite in colour and 

 texture ; it seems as if a breath of air would rufifle the lightest feather. " King Charles's 

 Spaniels," will be referred to hereafter. " A Sussex Spaniel," waiting by a dead 

 pheasant till it is picked up by the sportsman. The fourth, " A Retriever," shows only 

 the head and shoulders of the dog, which carries a woodcock in its mouth. The 

 perfect training of the animal is seen in the way he holds the bird, without displacing a 

 feather. It is by such minute attention to details that the painter proves himself 

 thoroughly acquainted with field-sports. 



The only picture he exhibited at the Academy in that year bore no title, but it 

 might appropriately have been called " The Shepherd's Prayer." The canvas is some- 

 what large, and the composition remarkable for being constituted of small objects. It 

 represents a shepherd kneeling devoutly before a " Calvary," or figure of the Saviour 

 crucified, erected by the side of a road leading over a wide tract of common with a 

 few trees growing on it. Around the man is a very numerous flock of sheep, many of 

 which are straggling into the distance. The sentiment of the work is of a character 

 more elevated than one is accustomed to see in the pictures of this artist : a hallowed 

 tranquillity at once reaches the senses, and maintains there increasing influence so long 

 as the eye rests on the canvas, for there is nothing to disturb the spiritual repose. 

 Even the trees are mannered into reverential eloquence consonant with the main purpose. 

 The "Calvary" is unusually large, so much so as to reduce the importance of the living 

 figure, who is habited in the ordinary blue blouse of the French peasant ; but, for the 



