SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



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picture, yet the artist has made a high class one out of the subject; and, although 

 admirably painted, especially the horse, that is not the attraction so much as the 

 gentle calmness which genius has diffused, with the power of fascination, oyer a 

 theme that has literally nothing to command attention There was no picture in the 

 Academy exhibition of that year that drew such crowds of admirers before it as did 

 this. At a sale at Christie's in 1866, it became the prbperty of Mr. Eaton, at the 



price of 1,430 guineas. 



With "The Shrew Tamed," Landseer exhibited three water-colour drawings, one 

 called "The Fatal Duel," the two others, " Scenes in the Marquis of Breadalbane's 

 Highland Deer-Forest," studies of deer, sketched in with a vigorous pencil. 



For many years he had contributed nothing to the British Institution, but in 

 1 86 1 he sent to the Gallery a picture entitled " An Offering." It simply presents a 

 goat bound and laid upon a pile, as if for a burnt-sacrifice, according to a passage in 

 the Book of Leviticus :— " And he took the goat, which was the sin-offering for the 

 people, and slew it, and offered it for sin, as the first." It is a slightly-painted picture, 

 to which the artist's name could alone give any real value. 



Among the pictures sold by Messrs. Christie and Co. in that year was one by 

 Landseer, called in the catalogue " The Deer in the Lake." It realized 1,000 guineas, 

 the purchaser being Mr. Robson. At the same time were sold for 260 guineas, to Mr. 

 Graves, a pair of drawings, entitled respectively, "Protection," and " Free Trade;" 

 each represents a horse, but of widely different degree in the scale of equine society. 

 The former shows a splendid riding-horse, held by a well-appointed groom ; the other, 

 a sturdy farmer with a fine animal " adapted for agricultural purposes." These 

 drawings are, now, or were recently, in the possession of Mr. Henry McConnel, 

 Cressbrook, Derbyshire. They have been engraved. 



In 1862 and 1863 no new work was seen from the studio of this artist; but in the 

 former year, at the sale of the pictures belonging to the late Mr. Flatou, the well- 

 known dealer, "The Watchman," a favourite bull-dog belonging to the painter, was 

 sold to Mr. Fletcher for 140 guineas; and at the sale of the collection of water-colour 

 pictures, formed by Mr. Charles Langton, of Liverpool, " Deer-Hounds," a drawing 

 by Landseer, was bought by Mr. Agnew for 170 guineas. In the record of sales in 1863, 

 must be specially noted his " Highland Shepherd," which, at the disposal of Mr. 

 Bicknell's collection, was bought by Mr. Agnew for the sum of 2,230 guineas. It was 

 stated at the time that its late owner had given only ^350 for it. In the same sale 

 was " An English Landscape," by Sir A. W. Callcott, a large and fine picture by the 

 " English Claude," as he was called, in which appears a group of cows luxuriating in 

 the shallow water of a stream. The picture was painted in 1842, and was sold to 

 Mr. Knott, of Barnet, for 400 guineas. At the sale of this gentleman's cdllection in 

 1845, it rose as high as 950 guineas, and I believe it then passed into the hands 



