38 S/Ji EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



These lines stood In the place of a title to a picture exhibited at the Academy in 1851 : 

 it has been made popular, by means of Mr. T. Landseer's fine engraving, under the name 

 of " The Monarch of the Glen," a magnificent stag which, according to the verse that 

 suggested the subject, appears to be testing the quality of the mountain-air, lifting his 

 head aloft with the proud and graceful bearing natural to the animal. If " looks have 

 language " his nobility of countenance, and bold independent carriage speak as 

 forcibly of the dominion he holds in glen and forest, as does the sway of a powerful ruler 

 whose sceptre stretches over millions of the human family. And yet we detect nought 

 of the tyrant here, only the majesty with which nature has endowed him to give pre- 

 eminence among his fellows. This is one of those subjects which specially bear out the 

 oft-repeated remark that Sir Edwin was not a mere clever painter of animals, but an 

 artist who imparted to his representations that peculiar feeling and expression which 

 often tempt us to regard them only as a step lower than ourselves in character and 

 intelligence. And how much of poetry and appropriate idea is displayed in that 

 solemn, misty background ; grand and solemn as if the foot of man had never trodden 

 its rugged mountainous heights to dispute possession with its antlered monarch, 

 whose round and well-conditioned body stands in strong relief against a sky quiet 

 with " night's shadows grey ! " 



The engraving of " The Breakfast Party," here introduced, is from a picture painted 

 many years ago— the exact date I cannot ascertain but it must have been early in Land- 

 seer' s career— for the late Lord Dover. A bare-kneed young Highlander is performing the 

 office of preceptor to a group of dogs in the matter of behaving at their morning-meal, 

 which has been dished -up from the neighbouring cauldron. He appears to be giving 

 them a spoonful all round by way of disciplining them to obedience, chacun a son tour; 

 the elder dogs wait patiently enough, like "grave and reverend signiors," but the 

 younger members of the fraternity have yet to learn the virtue of submission, and the 

 trial to which they are subject is almost beyond canine endurance : one of them is 

 inclined to make a dart at the well-filled spoon, but is checked by the up-lifted finger 

 of the boy. It is a most attractive picture, full of humour, and wonderfully expressive 

 of character in the animals : there is not a single head which is not a study; while the 

 entire composition, including the "master of the ceremonies," is so skilfully arranged 

 that all the points are seen to good advantage. 



Landseer was strong in the Academy in 1851; for in addition to "The 

 Monarch of the Glen," he exhibited five other works. " Group— Geneva " is 

 a large composition, showing prominently the heads of a circle of animals feeding 

 en famille from one common crib. They are the size of life, and are congregated 

 under an archway, where are mules, an ox in harness, and a pony : a dog is 

 dozing a little apart from them, for the feast is not adapted to his palate. The 

 grouping is original, unlike anything Landseer had ever previously attempted ; the 



