Landseer
Jamaica
Prov. 27:11
" My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me."
Storm to Sea
Chess: Landseer, Miramar, Ocean View, Jamaica
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer,
RA (
March 7,
1802 –
October 1,
1873) was an
English painter, well known for his paintings of animals - particularly horses, dogs and stags. The best known of Landseer's works, however, are
sculptures: the lions in
Trafalgar Square,
London.
Life and Significance
Landseer was something of a
child prodigy whose artistic talents were recognized early on; he studied under several artists, including his father John Landseer, an engraver, and
Benjamin Robert Haydon, the well-known and controversial history painter who encouraged the young Landseer to perform dissections in order to fully understand animal musculature and skeletal structure.
Landseer's life was entwined with the
Royal Academy. At the age of just 13, in 1815, he exhibited works there. He was elected an Associate at the age of 24, and an Academician five years later in 1831. He was knighted in 1850, and although elected President in 1866 he declined the invitation.
Landseer was a notable figure in
19th century British art, and his works can be found in
Tate Britain, the
Victoria and Albert Museum,
Kenwood House and the
Wallace Collection in
London. He also collaborated with fellow painter
Frederick Richard Lee.
Landseer's popularity in
Victorian Britain was considerable. He was widely regarded as one of the foremost animal painters of his time, and reproductions of his works were commonly found in middle-class homes. Yet his appeal crossed class boundaries, for Landseer was quite popular with the
British aristocracy as well, including
Queen Victoria, who commissioned numerous portraits of her family (and pets) from the artist. Landseer was particularly associated with
Scotland and the
Scottish Highlands, which provided the subjects (both human and animal) for many of his important paintings, including his early successes
The Hunting of Chevy Chase (1825-1826) and
An Illicit Whiskey Still in the Highlands (1826-1829), and his more mature achievements such as the majestic stag study
Monarch of the Glen (1851) and
Rent Day in the Wilderness (1855-1868).
Laying Down The Law (1840) satirises the legal profession through
anthropomorphism.
Saved (1856)
Landseer's paintings of dogs were highly popular among all classes of society.
So popular and influential were Landseer's paintings of dogs in the service of humanity that the name
Landseer came to be the official name for the variety of
Newfoundland dog that, rather than being black or mostly black, features a mix of both black and white; it was this variety Landseer popularized in his paintings celebrating Newfoundlands as water rescue dogs, most notably
Off to the Rescue (1827),
A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society (1838), and
Saved (1856), which combines Victorian constructions of childhood with the appealing idea of noble animals devoted to humankind — a devotion indicated, in
Saved, by the fact the dog has rescued the child without any apparent human direction or intervention.
In his late 30s Landseer suffered what is now believed to be a substantial nervous breakdown, and for the rest of his life was troubled by recurring bouts of melancholy, hypchondria, and depression, often aggravated by alcohol and drug use
[1]. In the last few years of his life Landseer's mental stability was problematic, and at the request of his family he was declared insane in July 1872.
Landseer's death on 1 October 1873 was widely marked in England: shops and houses lowered their blinds, flags flew at half-staff, his bronze lions at the base of
Nelson's column were hung with wreaths, and large crowds lined the streets to watch his funeral cortege pass
[2]. Landseer was buried in
St Paul's Cathedral, London.
Landseer was rumoured to be able to paint with both hands at the same time, for example, paint a horse's head with the right and its tail with the left, simultaneously. He was also known to be able to paint extremely quickly—when the mood struck him. He could also procrastinate, sometimes for years, over certain commissions.
The English architect
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens was named after him - Lutyens' father was a friend of Landseer.
Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Landseer, 1851: the image was widely distributed in
steel engravings
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