^^ Sm EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



harmonious distance the artist has ever painted. We cannot think these defects will 

 remain unremedied when the picture is said to be finished." To what extent it has 

 since been worked upon it is impossible to state. 



The other exhibited picture of the year was " Dandie Dinmont, the favourite old 

 Skye Terrier of her Majesty the Queen," standing on a bank, and curiously examining 

 a hedgehog, as if he would fain make an attack upon it, had not experience, possibly, 

 taught him the danger of playing with edged tools. It is an amusing picture, 

 painted, especially the skin of the dog, with masterly power. 



In the following year Landseer contributed nothing to the Academy, yet it was not 

 an unmarked epoch in his career. The International Exhibition in Paris was open, 

 and he was there represented by nine works : — " Islay and Macaire," the property of 

 the Queen; "Brazilian Monkeys," also belonging to the Queen; "The Sanctuary," 

 the picture painted for the late Prince Consort; "Shoeing the Horse," "Jack in 

 Office," "The Highland Breakfast," "Highland Drovers," "Tethered Rams," and 

 "A Fireside Party." For these he was awarded one of the only two large gold 

 medals given to English artists. The recipient of the other was the late Sir Charles 

 Barry, for architecture. 



" Sdivedl-^jDedtcafed to the Humane Society" is one of two pictures sent to the 

 Academy in 1856; it would form a most suitable companion to the "Distinguished 

 Member of the Humane Society," painted in 1838, for it represents the " member" in 

 the full exercise of his vocation. In other words, a splendid Newfoundland dog is 

 rescuing a child from drowning: the little fellow has evidently fallen from a jetty 

 or breakwater into the sea, from the depth of which the noble animal is bearing him 

 to some landing-place. The boy lies motionless in the mouth of his deliverer, 

 whose head is borne bravely up over the water with an expression which betokens a 

 request for aid : the dog's sagacity teaches it that the stone-wall cannot be climbed 

 with such a burden unless assisted. Little of the animal is seen except the head, 

 which is very finely painted ; but the dress of the child, instead of clinging closely 

 around the body, as saturated garments naturally do, appears almost as if the water 

 had never touched it, so firmly does it stand out. 



Another "dedicated" picture accompanied the latter. The name of Florence 

 Nightingale had become a household word throughout the country, and her acts of mercy 

 prompted Landseer to paint a work which he called " Highland Nurses — Dedicated to 

 Miss Nightingale." The composition is almost as painfully impressive as that of " The 

 Random Shot," already noticed. The "nurses" are two does in the act of licking 

 the wounds of a poor stag that has been shot, and is dying on the crest of a Highland 

 mountain. They who have studied the natural history of these animals may be able to 

 verify the actual truth of such a representation — the fact, that is, of their making an 

 effort to relieve the sufferings of each other ; but whether they do or do not, the 



