
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer Painting Reproductions Gallery 1 of 4
1802-1873English Victorian Neoclassicism Painter
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (b. March 7, 1802 in London - d. 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.
Landseer was something of a child prodigy whose artistic talents were recognized early on; he studied under several artists, including 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.
At the age of just 21, in 1815, Landseer exhibited works at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy at the age of 24, and an Academician of the Royal Academy five years later in 1831. He was knighted in 1850, and although elected President of the Royal Academy 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).
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 almost entirely 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 (Ormond, Monarch 125). 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 of 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 (Ormond, Monarch 135). 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.
73 Paintings of Landseer
The Wallace Collection London United Kingdom
The Arab Tent
$917
$49.86
Milwaukee Art Museum Wisconsin USA
Jocko with a Hedgehog
$789
Tate Gallery London United Kingdom
Dignity and Impudence
$787
$48.77
The Royal Collection London United Kingdom
Eos, A Favorite Greyhound of Prince Albert
$835
$55.23
Private Collection
Scene in Braemar - Highland Deer
$942
Royal Academy of Arts London United Kingdom
The Faithful Hound
$992
Shugborough Hall Staffordshire United Kingdom
The Duchess of Abercorn and her Daughter
$580
Private Collection
Stag
$888
$79.99
Victoria and Albert Museum London United Kingdom
Comical Dogs
$879
$98.37
Victoria and Albert Museum London United Kingdom
There's No Place Like Home
$809
$48.77
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
Ptarmigan in a Landscape
$917
$55.64
Private Collection
A Shepherd and his Flock
$717
$60.11
Private Collection
A Highland Loch
$659
$48.77
Private Collection
Niccolo Paganini Playing the Violin
$46.44
Yale Center for British Art Connecticut USA
Portrait of Mr Van Amburgh as he Appeared with ...
$1757
$54.15
Private Collection
Portrait Sketch of Sir Walter Scott
$46.44
Harris Museum and Art Gallery Preston United Kingdom
A Puppy teasing a Frog
$876
$48.77
The Wallace Collection London United Kingdom
Doubtful Crumbs
$887
$60.87
Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Coventry United Kingdom
Lady Godiva's Prayer
$1490
$57.24
Private Collection
A Courtyard in Olden Times
$64.87
Private Collection
A Study for Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time
$48.77
Private Collection
Portrait of Elizabeth Wells, Lady Dyke
$849
Private Collection
Monarch of the Glen
$1068
$71.75
Art Institute of Chicago Illinois USA
Head of a Roebuck and Two Ptarmigan
$868
$48.77