NIGHT— MORNING. 41 



the spectator till nearly lost to the eye, the line of light coming from behind the centre 

 and radiating the crests of the hills and other portions of the landscape, serve to show 

 that as much thought as executive skill was exercised on this really beautiful and most 

 suggestive work. 



At the sale, in 1852, of a portion of the English pictures of the late Mr. William 

 Wells, of Redleaf, were two of Landseer's paintings: — "Fallow Deer," which sold 

 for 700 guineas, and " Red Deer," for 650 guineas. I believe the latter is now in the 

 possession of Mr. W. Bashall, Farington, Lancashire. 



Four fine pictures, all indicative of the Scottish Highlands, formed his contributions 

 to the Academy in 1853. "Night" and "Morning" are companion-works. The 

 former had as its descriptive motto the following anonymous verse : — 



" The moon, clear witness of the fierce affray. 

 Her wakeful lamp held o'er that lonely place, 

 Fringing with light the wild lake's fitful spray. 

 Whilst madly glanced ' the Borealis race.' " 



The latter was thus introduced : — 



" Lock'd in the close embrace of death they lay. 

 Those mighty heroes of the mountain-side — 

 Contending champions for the kingly sway, 



In strength and spirit match'd, they fought — and died." 



" Night " presents to the spectator two stags engaged in mortal combat — 



"Battle's magnificently stern array," 



so far as the deadly encounter of these heroes of the mountain and the glen bear out 

 the line of the poet; " Morning," the combatants stretched out on the heather, dead, 

 and their antlers locked together as they fell in the fearful struggle for power and 

 dominion. How much of poetic feeling, painful, most painful, as the subjects are, do 

 these compositions exhibit ! The combat is by moonlight, and yet not amid the stillness 

 of " star-gemmed heavens " and the peaceful uprising of the queen of night ; but beneath 

 thick mists, veiling her beauty, and rain-torrents sweeping over mountain and over 

 loch, whose waters are lashed into fury, and a general war of elements almost as fierce 

 as that which the animals are waging. There is just light enough in the picture to 

 show the strife that is going on in the dreary solitude. In its companion, " Morning " 

 has broken over the landscape ; the same hills and lake and beds of heather, which 

 before were enveloped in mists and shadows, are now lit up with the loveliest and 

 brightest tints of a glorious sunrise, and the waters of the lake have subsided into a 

 voiceless calm; but death mars all its beauty, and the feeling which this produces 

 outweighs all other. How, indeed, could it be otherwise when it is the sentiment the 



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