
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer Painting Reproductions Gallery 3 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 Royal Collection London United Kingdom
Cairnach
$453
$47.90
The Royal Collection London United Kingdom
Queen Victoria
$503
$47.90
The Royal Collection London United Kingdom
Christ on the Cross after Rubens
$43.91
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University Massachusetts USA
The Falcon
$78.41
Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University Massachusetts USA
Tiger
$43.91
Sudley House Liverpool United Kingdom
Lake Scene
$50.18
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
The Bride of Lammermoor
$590
$47.90
Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA
The Falconer (Portrait of William Russell)
$601
$48.47
The Wallace Collection London United Kingdom
A Highland Scene
$552
$47.90
Private Collection
Some of the Best Harts in the Forest
$43.91
Private Collection
A Deer Fallen from a Precipice
$592
$47.90
Private Collection
A Deer Just Shot
$585
$47.90
Private Collection
Studies of Cattle and Sheep
$569
$70.45
Private Collection
A Stag at Tarbet
$43.91
Private Collection
Stag and Hound
$526
Victoria and Albert Museum London United Kingdom
The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner
$532
$47.90
Tate Gallery London United Kingdom
Shoeing
$906
Public Collection
Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time
$1568
Yale Center for British Art Connecticut USA
Favourites, the Property of H.R.H. Prince George ...
$873
$58.08
Minneapolis Institute of Arts Minnesota USA
The Cat's Paw
$712
$64.42
Public Collection
Deer of Chillingham Park, Northumberland
$723
$48.44
Public Collection
Wild Cattle of Chillingham
$747
$48.84
Public Collection
The Otter Speared, Portrait of the Earl of ...
$2214
$56.10