40 SM EDWIN LAND SEER. R.A. 



Institution he contributed "The Deer Pass," subsequently engraved by Mr. T. Landseer. 

 The picture was painted for, or purchased by, Mr. Frederick Peel. There certainly is 

 always a magic charm in the Highland scenes of this painter which overcomes all 

 opposition one might feel to their frequent occurrence : there are the snow-capped 

 mountains, the " ancient, everlasting hills," purple with heather, the rocky ravines, the 

 deep glens, 



" Peopled with deer, their old inhabitants," 



thick, palpable mists rolling between the gorges, and dense clouds through which the 

 sun appears scarcely able to penetrate — all these one knows well, having seen them 

 year after year ; yet such is the skill of the painter in diversifying his materials, and 

 such the poetical feeling with which his pencil delineates them, that we sometimes 

 forget the reiteration in the variety and beauty of his expressions. It is no inadequate 

 proof of the genius of the artist that he produced something " ever changing, ever 

 new," out of what may be called his " old stock in trade." In this " Deer Pass " we 

 recognise some familiar faces ; our old friend "the monarch of the glen" greets us 

 conspicuously in the foreground of the composition ; and the stag which once was " at 

 bay," having baffled his pursuers, now stands boldly, but watchfully, amid the 

 solitude of the rocks : these are friends one always welcomes gladly in Landseer' s 

 pictures. 



The scenery of the "Deer Pass" is incomparably grand ; the centre is occupied 

 by a disjointed mass of rocky mountain, whose rugged forms show that time and 

 tempest have been at work upon them. To the right is a deep ravine, through which 

 a streamlet trickles — nothing more ; so narrow is it as only to show itself in sudden 

 gleams of light reflected from the sky; we could fancy what a torrent would flow 

 over the bed when the wintry snows have melted, and the rains are pouring their 

 floods from mountain and hill-side. To the left of the composition are gigantic 

 and shapely masses of granite reflected in deep pools of water. Between these and 

 the centre is the "Pass," in the foreground of which stands a stag, looking out of the 

 picture, as if to challenge the attention of the spectator. He is surrounded by a bevy 

 of sleek hinds, that survey him as if proud of their lordly protector, and conscious of 

 safety under the guardianship of his mighty antlers. Further up the pass are others 

 of the herd, and on a mass of table-rock at its extremity are many more browsing on 

 the heather, here partially lit up with sunshine. 



Unlike most of Landseer' s compositions, the animals in this seem to hold only a 

 secondary place ; and yet the picture would have been an awful solitude without 

 them : with them it is beautiful even in its almost savage wildness. But the treatment 

 of the landscape may be classed among the painter's triumphs. The grand forms of 

 the mountains, the solid heaved-up masses of granite, the shadowy glen receding from 



