LANDSEER, Sot Edwin Henry, English animal painter: b. London, 7 March 1802; d. 1 Oct. 1873. Hampstead Heath was the scene of some of his early studies, and on one of his early productions now at Kensington his father has written eat the age of five." Following the advice of Haydon he studied the Elgin Marbles and the wild beasts at Exeter Change and dis sected every animal whose carcass was obtain able. His life is the record of his works and successes. In the Academy's exhibition for 1815 he exhibited the 'Portrait of a Mule) and the 'Heads of a Pointer-Bitch and Puppy.' In 1818 he contributed several studies of animals to the Academy and the British Institution. In that year a picture exhibited at the exhibition of the Oil and Water Color Society in Spring Gardens, 'Fighting Dogs Getting Wind,' at tracted great attention and set a seal upon his work. In 1820 he painted his 'Dogs of St. Gothard.' In 1821 he exhibited 'Ratcatchers,' a 'Prowling Lion' and other works of great spirit. In 1822 he received the premium of f150 from the British Institution for the 'Larder Invaded.' • The 'Cat's Paw' appeared at the Academy in 1824 and was sold for £100. In 1826 he was elected A.R.A., and in 1831 became R.A. In 1827 he exhibited 'The Re turn from
a 'Fire-side Party,' 1829; 'High
and 'Low Life,' 1831; 'Spaniels of King Charles' Breed,' 'A Jack in Office,' 1833;
Abbey in the Olden Time,' 1834; 'The Drover's Departure,' 1837; 'The Return from Hawking> and the 'Shep herd's Chief Mourner,' 1837; a (Distinguished Member of the Humane Society> and 'There's Life in the Old Dog Yet,' 1838; in 1840, 'Lay ing Down the
; in 1844, 'Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before,' and in 1846,
'Saved,' 'Deer-Stalking,> 'A Flood in the Highlands,' 'A Random Shot> (the most pathetic of all his works), 'Wild Cattle at Chillingharn,) and his celebrated work of sculp ture, the Lions in Trafalga Square. Laudseer s pencil was productive, and besides many works not here named he produced portraits of celeb rities of the time, that of Sir Walter Scott be ing in theNational Gallery. In 1850 he was knighted; in 1855 he received the gold medal of the Paris exhibition. He declined the presi dency of the Royal Academy offered him on the death of Sir Charles Eastlake (1865).
Landseer, notwithstanding his notable work in portraiture, was essentially an animal painter, his success being in fur rather than in flesh. Down to about 1823 he was content to repro duce the natural expression and characteristics of animals, but after that date, at the sacrifice of genuine artistic qualities, his animal pieces are treated with more or less pictorial effects, with the idea of enforcing the analogy between the character of men and dogs. Dogs and deer are his favorite subjects. His draughtsmanship is facile and elegant, and he was exceedingly rapid in execution. He held a distinguished place in the society of his time, but his abnor mal sensibility made him in his later years acutely liable to fits of mental depression\clue to imagined slights by social superiors. Consult Graves, A., (Catalogue of the Works Sir Edwin Landseer) (London); Mawson, J. A., (Landseer' in (Makers of British Art' (Lon don 1902) ; Monkhouse, Cosmo, (Studies of Sir Edwin Landseer' (London) • Stephens, F. G., (Sir Edwin Landseer' (ib. 1880) ; Sweetser, M. F., in (Artist Biographies' (Vol. III, Boston 1878).