Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 32.djvu/70

Landseer accompanied Lord Stuart de Rothesay to Portugal, and proceeded to Rio de Janeiro on a mission to negotiate a commercial treaty with Don Pedro I. During this trip he made a number of sketches and drawings, some of which were exhibited at the British Institution in 1828. In this year he sent his first picture to the Royal Academy. ‘Dorothea’ (from 'Don Quixote'). In 1833 he exhibited 'Clarissa Harlowe in the Spunging House,' which was bought by Mr. Mr. Vernon, and is now in the National Gallery, together with the 'Sacking of Basing House,' bequeathed to the nation by Mr. Jacob Bell. In 1837 he was elected associate of the Royal Academy. In 1842 he exhibited ‘Charles II escaping in disguise from Colonel Lane's House,' in 1843 ‘The Monks of Melrose,' and in 1844 ‘The Return of the Dove to the Ark.' In 1845 he received the full honours of the Academy, and exhibited 'The Eve of the Battle of Edgehill,' containing a group of a spaniel and despatch-bags by his brother Sir Edwin, which has since been cut out of the picture. In 1851 he succeeded George Jones, R.A. [q. v.], as keeper of the Royal Academy, an office which involves the duty of giving instruction in the antique school. In 1873 he retired from the keepership with full salary. Between 1822 and 1879 he exhibited 110 pictures—seventy-three at the Royal Academy, twenty-six at the British Institution, and eleven at Suffolk Street. In 1879 he sent three pictures, including a portrait of himself, to the Royal Academy, and he died on 22 July in the same year. He gave 10,000l to the Royal Academy for the foundation of Landseer scholarships.

 LANDSEER, EDWIN HENRY (1802–1878), animal-painter, third and youngest son of John Landseer [q. v.] was born at 33 Foley street (then 71 Queen Anne Street East), London, on 7 March 1802. His father held that ordinary education was unnecessary, if not harmful, to artists, and as Edwin showed little love for books and a great deal for drawing, he was taken into the fields (which then extended nearly all the way from Marylebone to Hampstead) to sketch the sheep, goats, and donkeys which grazed there. There are very clever drawings made by him from nature before he was six in the South Kensington Museum and elsewhere. He also began very early to sketch the wild beasts at Exeter Change. His earliest known etching (1809) is from a drawing by himself, of ‘Heads of a Lion and a Tiger,' in which the lion's head was etched by himself and the tiger's by his brother Thomas. Seven more etchings were executed by 1812, At this time, therefore, be could etch as well as draw in pencil, chalk, and water-colours, and he painted in oils before he was twelve. The works of his childhood are still esteemed for their artistic merit. ‘A Brown Mastiff' painted at the age of ten, was sold at Sir John Swinburne's sale (1861) for seventy guineas. His young genius was fostered by the whole family, and his genial disposition helped him to gain friends. At Beleigh Grange, Essex, the residence of Mr. W. W. Simpson, he found a second home, and drew the horses, the Persian cats, the dogs, and the coachman.

In 1813 he was awarded the silver palette of the Society of Arts for drawing of animals, and he wok the Isis medal of the same society in 1814, 1815, and 1818. In 1815 he received some valuable hints from B. R. Haydon [q. v.], who gave him his dissections of a lion, bade him study anatomy, Raphael's cartoons, and the Elgin marbles, and the Snyders of England, and in the same year he made his début at the Royal Academy exhibitions with drawings of a 'Pointer bitch and puppy' (engraved) and a 'Mule' belonging to Mr. Simpson. In 1816 he entered the schools of the Royal Academy. At this time he is described by C. R. Leslie [q. v.] as ‘a curly-headed youngster, dividing his time between Polito's wild beasts at Exeter Chanqe and the Royal Academy Schools.'

In 1817 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a portrait of ‘Brutus,' a terrier belonging to Mr. Simpson, and the father of another ‘Brutus, a celebrated dog of his own. In the same year a picture of ‘A Sleeping Dog' created an impression at the Society of Painters in Oil and Water-colours (now the Royal Society of Painters in Water-colours), and this was exceeded by that of ‘Fighting Dogs getting Wind’ at the following exhibition of the same society, which was bought by Sir George Beaumont. In 1820 he availed himself of the opportunity of dissecting a dead lion. In this year his previous successes ‘were crowned by that of 'Alpine Mastiffs reanimating a Dead Traveller,’ which was engraved by his father and brother Thomas. In 1821 two large pictures of lions, ‘A Lion enjoying his Repast' and ‘A Lion disturbed at his past,’ were exhibited at the British Institution; and in 1822 he obtained a prize of 150l. from the directors of this institution for his picture of ‘The Larder Invaded,’ in which his own dog 'Brutus’ was 