SCENE LV BRAE MAR— HIGHLAND DEER, ETC. 



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subject, as a picture, is calculated to give more of pain than of pleasure, however well 

 it may be set forth on the canvas ; and here, certainly, nothing could be done in the 

 way of improvement. 



In the year just referred to, a picture by Landseer was exhibited at Mr. Bryant's 

 Gallery, in St. James's Street; its title was "Taking the Buck," and it represents a 

 stag, on which the hounds have fastened, being secured with a rope by a huntsman : 

 the canvas is of very large dimensions, so as to allow the figures and animals being 

 rendered nearly of life-size. A picture with this title was exhibited at the British 

 Institution in 1826, probably the same as the one at Mr. Bryant's, for it has an amount 

 of elaboration the artist rarely bestowed on his later works. I may here notice that, 

 at the sale of Mr. Fairlie's collection, in the same year, a small picture by Landseer, 

 called "Puppy and Frog," was sold for 290 guineas. 



Landseer's contribution to the Academy in 1857 consisted of three works: — 



"Scene in Brae Mar — Highland Deer, &c.," a large picture, in which the deer are 



placed on a peak of one of the mountains, above the eye of the spectator, so as to 



bring them into relief against the sky ; a mode of treatment frequently adopted by the 



painter, and having this advantage, that it gives prominency to what may be considered 



to be the leading feature of the composition. The principal object in the group of 



animals is an old stag with immense antlers ; he looks as if he had had many a 



wearisome run to escape the fangs of the deer-hound and the rifle-ball of the stalker. 



His companions are several does and fawns, probably his wives and children ; two of 



the latter are looking at what appears to be, for it is not very distinctly visible, an 



eagle rising into the air with some unfortunate creature he has secured in his talons. 



The picture is excellent in quality. It was painted for the late Mr. E. L. Betts, of 



Maidstone, whose collection was sold in 1868, when this realised 4,000 guineas, for 



which sum it was knocked down to Messrs. Agnew. There is a large engraving of it 



by Mr. T. Landseer, and a smaller by Mr. G. Zobel. " Rough and Ready " is the title 



given to a pony — certainly rough, but looking very quiet, so that a child might ride or 



drive him. The accessories introduced are of an ordinary kind, yet so adjusted as to 



be of value to the composition. The third contribution, " Uncle Tom and his Wife for 



Sale," is an idea borrowed from Mrs. Beecher Stowe's once popular but exaggerated 



story, which the artist has travestied by representing Uncle Tom and his wife in the 



form of two black mastiffs seated together in mute and melancholy companionship ; 



and he has given to the husband's face something of the configuration of the real 



African's. The picture is irresistibly whimsical in all points, for even the bodies and 



limbs of the dogs seem to refer to humanity in the manner of their disposition. 



This last-mentioned work became the property of the late Mr. John Houldsworth, of 

 Glasgow; and when his collection was sold in i860, "Uncle Tom" realised 770 

 guineas, which Mr. H. Wallis paid for it. The following year Mr. Wallis's collection 



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