TIME OF PEACE. 35 



of Mr. Bicknell ; but either before, or soon after, It became his property, Landseer 

 " worked up" the cattle, and when, after the decease of its owner, it was again offered 

 to the public, Mr. Agnew had to pay the sum of 2,950 guineas to secure it. Two years 

 afterwards, namely, in 1865, the picture was once more put up for sale in Mr. Duncan 

 Fletcher's collection, when Mr. Agnew was again the purchaser, but at the reduced 

 price of 2,000 guineas; another instance of the variableness of the picture-market, the 

 '• turns " of which are often so mysterious as to be quite incomprehensible to every 

 one out of the trade. 



A picture by Landseer, sold by auction in 1863, must be recorded here — a " Head 

 of a Dog," bought by Mr. Earl for 325 guineas. 



Had Landseer never produced any other picture than " Peace," exhibited at the 

 Royal Academy in 1846, and here engraved, it would undoubtedly entitle him to the 

 highest rank that an artist in his especial department might assume ; while they, if / 

 there be any such, who are accustomed to regard him as a mere painter of animals, / 

 however original in his conceptions and treatment, must, on a close analysis of this 

 composition, entertain a contrary opinion, if they have eyes to see and minds to \ 

 comprehend. The casual observer would here discern little else than a group of sheep 

 and goats quietly reposing, and children engaged in some half-idle occupation ; but 

 the work suggests a far wider range of ideas, and is of more extensive application than 

 an ordinary picture of figxires and animals — it is a poem of the pencil. 



It may fairly be presumed that its title was not an afterthought : the artist desired 



to give his definition of a " Time of Peace " — the name by which he called it — and he 



composed his subject with this express intent ; just as a poet would arrange the time 



and circumstances of an epic. And first, there is the place — the cliffs which overlook 



the harbour of Dover, the nearest port to the country with whose people England has 



so frequently waged long and sanguinary wars : any other locality would have told 



this part of the story less forcibly and efficiently. Those heights, so often trodden 



by the armed sentinel on the watch for hostile squadrons, are now in quiet possession 



of the timid sheep, and their companions the goats: even the sea is perfectly 



tranquil — 



" The winds are all hush'd, and the waves are at rest ; 



They sleep like the passions in infancy's breast ; " — 



and on its deep blue surface, which reflects the azure of a summer's bright sky, lazily 

 float two or three small pleasure-yachts ; while from the distant harbour a steamer, 

 " on no hostile purpose bent," is departing for the shore on the opposite side of the 

 Channel, a messenger of friendly international communication. The place and 

 circumstances thus bear out, and maintain, the painter's object. 



But yet more so are the living objects symbolical of "Peace." The goats in the 

 foreground' have evidently been at work, for they are harnessed, and are now resting 



