DEATH OF THE STAG. 3, 



that his swift legs will carry him beyond the reach of his pursuers, or hide him in deep 

 covert, where even canine sagacity cannot track him. But from Landseer's picture 

 there is no such hope to be sustained, no pause in the struggle between life and death, 

 no drawing back from sudden destruction : had the stag only the element of water to 

 contend against, that breast might stem the torrent, and those delicate but muscular 

 limbs might bear him safely over the mimic cataract to the shores of the lake. He is 

 held down, however, by one of his powerful adversaries, and is wearied perhaps by a 

 hard day's run ; his tongue protrudes from exhaustion and pain ; the eye is already 

 half-glazed in the anguish of death ; and though he still holds his head proudly 

 upwards, and stretches out his body bravely over the crest of the waters, it is only like 

 the last effort 



"Of some strong swimmer in his agony : " 



he has struggled hard and nobly for life, and falls with his face to the enemy. 



It may well be asked, Why then do painters select such subjects as these, when the 

 animal-world in its innocence and joyousness, the whole creation in all its beauty and 

 serenity, lie open before them, from which they may unreservedly make choice ? The 

 question is more easily put than answered ; but they may have an object other than that 

 of merely exhibiting power to illustrate a special scene ; they may possibly desire to 

 "point a moral," and to do this effectually they would necessarily make the strongest 

 appeal to reason and sensibility that imagination could suggest. They would seize 

 the most striking incidents the subject admits of, and impart to them the most vivid 

 colouring, just as an orator often reserves his loftiest flights of eloquence for the 

 peroration, that he may leave the more lasting impression on his audience, or as a 

 tragedian throws all his energies into the death-scene that he may expire amid the 

 plaudits of the spectators. In all these cases effect is sought after ; such an effect as 

 will best suit the purpose of him who performs it, by making the act to be, at one and 

 the same time, its own commentator, and the interpreter of the genius of him who 



presents it. 



There is a fine poetical feeling, of tragic character, thrown into the composition of 

 this work, which only a painter of high genius could have imagined ; the landscape 

 harmonises with the deed of death ; it is solitary,' rugged, and barren ; the hard granite 

 rocks, abrupt and shadowy, seem to look on, pitiless spectators of what is taking place 

 beneath them ; and the only echo which fancy hears is that of the howl of the drowning 

 dog as the sound rolls along the gloomy amphitheatre of hills until lost in the distant 

 gorge. The last rays of the evening sun are fast disappearing, but they still throw a 

 strong light over the foreground of the composition, and sparkle on the white foam of 

 the waters, and on the wet green moss which covers the huge boulders of stone. 



Although this is one of the artist's comparatively early pictures, it is painted with 



