6o Sin EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A. 



The Royal Academy exhibition of 1865 contained four of Landseer's pictures ; 

 among them, and by far the most popular, was " The Connoisseurs," certainly one of 

 his most felicitous ideas. Occupied in sketching — from nature, it may be presumed — 

 is the artist himself, a half-length portrait ; or, perhaps, it should rather be called a 

 three-quarter, for the sketching-frame rests on his knees. Looking over and almost 

 resting upon, each shoulder, are the heads of two magnificent hounds, the 

 "Connoisseurs," examining with thoughtful and critical eyes, the transference to 

 paper of some of their fraternity. The expression of the animals' faces is exquisitely 

 comic in spite of their gravity. The picture has been engraved by Mr. S. Cousins. 

 "Prosperity" and "Adversity," a pair, accompanied "The Connoisseurs" in the 

 gallery. The former of the two is personated by a horse, glossy, and well cared-for, 

 waiting for its mistress to take her morning-ride. "Adversity" shows the same 

 animal reduced in old age to a hack, and doomed to servile drudgery. It is not only 

 of horses that the moral here taught may be applied ; there are bipeds whose history 

 might furnish a narrative equally truthful. The fourth picture had for its title, 

 " Dejeuner a la Fourchette." Somehow it escaped my notice when exhibited. 



Once more, and for the last time, pictures by Landseer were seen on the walls of 

 the British Institution in Pall Mall. In 1865 he contributed three works. As I was not 

 fortunate enough to see them, I must borrow the notice of a cotemporary critic : — " Sir 

 Edwin Landseer tells his story with equal pathos and greater delicacy. ' An Event in 

 the Forest' is the death of a stag, shot in a rocky ravine, and lying among the 

 boulders left by a mountain -torrent. A fox keeps guard over the prey, and an eagle 

 wings its way, scenting food. The subject, which has the charm of a poem, refined in 

 sentiment, and arousing to sympathy, is painted in Landseer's last or vaporous 

 manner, slight and suggestive in execution, the broad results struck out with rapid 

 liquid brush, the details just indicated, but not elaborated. * No Hunting till the 

 Weather breaks,' by the same artist, is in painting more solid, but less pleasing. 

 Landseer's third picture, ' Dear Old Boz,' painted for Her Majesty, ranks among the 

 most careful and commendable of his works. In the painting of this Skye terrier, we 

 see what detailed finish Landseer would reach, did time permit the carrying out of 

 pictures which are sometimes left, in the pressure of professional engagements, little 

 more than ideas skilfully sketched. « Dear Old Boz,' indeed, is a study which every 

 artist should attentively examine. No man knows better how to get softness and yet 

 substance ; transparent depth, yet tangible surface ; suggestive and cloudy haziness, 

 yet definite form and rotundity. This comes from knowledge of nature, and the 

 practice in Art that makes perfect. The mode in which the terrier's shaggy coat has 

 been painted is specially worthy of observation. Look not only at the softness, but at 

 the depth, of the hair, layer lying beneath layer, each lock of a length and a curve 

 which called for the artist's consummate dexterity of execution, as he laid down with 



