REFRESHMENT— A SCENE IN BELGIUM. 29 



This small, but most valuable, picture is painted on panel, and measures about two 

 feet by one foot and a half. It is a striking example of the clean and solid 

 execution of the artist : the textures are rendered with marvellous truth, especially the 

 coats of the dogs, which even the painter himself has never surpassed. In the head of 

 the old Gael there is no indecision ; the healthy hues of his features are laid in with a 

 full pencil, and the chiar' -oscuro yields an effect that could not possibly be improved by 

 any other arrangement. 



Passing from this chronological digression in the order of the appearance of 

 Landseer's pictures, I now come to the year 1846, when he exhibited at the 

 Academy four works — all of them specially notable ; three of these, " Time of Peace," 

 "Time of War," and "The Stag at Bay," will be referred to hereafter: the fourth 

 picture, " Refreshment," a truly fine and a most interesting work, was painted for, or 

 sold to, Mr. Nieuwenhuys, a well-known Belgian picture-dealer. The work has been 

 very effectively engraved by H. Cousins ; the print is called " Refreshment — a Scene in 

 Belgium." In front of a wide ancient doorway, that appears to be the entrance to an 

 old Norman chateau, stands a white draught-horse, still caparisoned in the heavy 

 harness peculiar to that part of the Continent, though he has evidently just come off a 

 journey. His head-gear hangs about his stout neck, and he is refreshing himself 

 with a meal of carrots, turnips, and other- vegetables placed on a large tub turned 

 upside down. Leaning against the side of the archway, with his legs bare and one foot 

 slipped out of his sabot, a boy rests lazily a knee against the edge of the tub ; and just 

 inside the archway is a buxom, pleasant-looking lass ; both watching the animal at his 

 feast ; his sleepy eye and negligee posture intimate his weariness. In addition to these, 

 two large and handsome dogs, one of which certainly knows what it is to work in 

 harness, are lying down to rest themselves ; one close to the tub, the other under the 

 shadow of a mass of woodwork, the flat top of which serves as a kind of table for a 

 bottle of green glass containing red wine, an apple, and sundry other objects. In 

 the middle distance is visible a man tending some goats ; he half reclines on the 

 ground, with his head turned towards the group in the foreground ; and beyond all is a 

 glimpse of hilly ground, the tender and airy hues of which are beautifully rarified by the 

 opposition of the bottle and its contents standing out in brilliant relief against it. The 

 artist seems to have painted the picture with a view to show his power of delineating 

 those objects in which he most excels. There are the dogs, drawn with his accustomed 

 truth the horse admirably characterised— a portion of a fleece, unexceptionable sheep- 

 skin and a boy and young female ; many of these are the elements of his best works. 



It was publicly stated at the time these four pictures were exhibited, that Landseer 

 received for them nearly / 7,000 : namely, ^2,400 for the paintings themselves, and 

 /4,450 for the copyrights. The late Sir Francis G. Moon gave ^2,650 for the 

 copyright of "Peace" and "War": Messrs. Graves and Co., /i.ooo for that of 



