Sir Edwin Henry Landseer born March 7, 1802, London, died Oct. 1, 1873, London

Left:"Pen and brown ink,1825 by the British artist Sir George Hayter. 158 mm x 110 mm. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.
Middle:Portrait of the Artist with Two Dogs by Edwin Landseer, 1865. This self-portrait was a gift to King Edward VII. It is now part of Britain's Royal Collection
Right: Photo John & Charles Watkins

Biography

Being a brilliant animal painter whose work had added appeal in the Victorian age because of his tendency to give his animal scenes a moral dimension. These pictures were widely circulated in his time in the form of engravings, often made by his brother Thomas. Edwin Landseer was the youngest son of an engraver. The three Landseer brothers studied under Benjamin Robert Haydon, the historical painter, from 1815. Haydon encouraged Landseer to study animal anatomy. In 1816, Landseer entered the Royal Academy Schools, but he had already exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in the previous year. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1826 aged only twenty four, and full Academician in 1831 when not yet thirty.  

In 1824 Landseer made the first of many visits to Scotland. He fell in love with the Highlands, which inspired many of his later paintings such as 'The Monarch of the Glen' (Royal Academy 1851, John Dewar & Sons Limited). He also visited Sir Walter Scott, who admired his paintings and chose him as one of the illustrators to the Waverley edition of his novels. In the 1830s his work gained wide popularity and was bought both by the aristocracy and the newly important middle class. He himself moved freely in aristocratic circles, and after 1836 he enjoyed royal patronage, especially in the 1840s when Victoria and Albert also discovered Scotland. He paid his first visit to their home, Balmoral in 1850 to paint a large group portrait of the royal family. He was knighted that year even though the painting was never finished.

After a breakdown in 1840, partly caused by the failure of the royal portrait, Landseer had a permanent fight against depression and ill health, although he continued to paint brilliantly almost until the end of his life.

In the 1860s he modelled the lions at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and these were unveiled in 1867. In 1866 he declined the presidency of the Royal Academy, and after 1870 sank slowly into madness. A major exhibition of his work was held at the Tate Gallery in 1981, organised by Richard Ormond. — Hilary Morgan

Editors-Preface:
Our breed of dog is named after this famous painter, a truly outstanding artist, who during his lifetime was a leading figure in the world of art.

That Edwin Landseer chose to paint animals seems to have been a matter of circumstance and temperament. From the age of four or five he drew cows, horses and dogs, compulsively and instinctively. That led naturally to a career as an animal painter. While still a boy Landseer was drawing and etching farm animals for a succession of modest Essex patrons, chief among them W. W. Simpson.

How did it happen that a particular breed of dog came later to be so identified with this painter that it was given his name? Sir Edwin Landseer in the course of his long and successful life painted a great number of dog portraits including specimens of many different breeds. However, the Newfoundland dog’ played a favourite role. By the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century these dogs were both much loved and widely distributed in England. Evidence for this is to be found in those first specialized books on dogs which appeared in England at the beginning of the last century. From them we know with certainty that these dogs were known and widely distributed in England long before the birth of the artist. And so Sir Edwin Landseer painted those dogs which he found around him. He was not a breeder, as has sometimes been maintained, nor did he create the breed through his paintings. In fact, the Newfoundland dog was part of the everyday world in which the painter grew up. And so it happened that he painted that dog as he knew it and as he had always found it. His paintings enjoyed success with the public and some of them became very famous. This naturally brought a further increase in the fame of and affection aroused by these dogs, at least in the early days. After the middle of the last century the type of Newfoundland dog which Sir Edwin Landseer had captured in many paintings during his lifetime underwent a definite decline in its popularity compared with the emerging black Newfoundland. There were many reasons for this. The main reason was the greater aptitude of a smaller, lighter black dog for hunting. This black dog was, as a breed, not at all identical with the dog with the black head and patch markings which was originally known as the ‘Newfoundland dog’. It was a totally different type. Despite this it was nominated by the pioneers of controlled dog-breeding in England as the ‘true’ Newfoundland. To draw a distinction between this true’ Newfoundland and the older type which had been in fashion in the first half of the century, the older Newfoundland dog was called quite simply the ‘Landseer’ because the identification of the dog with the painter was dear from the paintings which had become famous and were loved all over the world.

Unfortunately, even the artistic reputation of the paintings of Sir Edwin Landseer was swayed by fashion and by changes in taste. The nineteenth century, together with all its stylistic pretensions, fell for a long time into a state of neglect. Many of Sir Edwin’s paintings were also forgotten, and with the memory of the paintings there also disappeared the knowledge of the existence of a breed of dogs which had been the pride and joy of their owners for the previous one hundred and fifty years. The paintings were no longer known, and people had even forgotten what the dogs portrayed in them had looked like. Only the breed’ name Landseer was kept. A few descendants of these dogs remained, even though they had changed out of all recognition through interbreeding with their black cousins by whose side they were now a small minority, always on the brink of extinction.

We have been trying for long years now to rebuild this beautiful old breed and we have concluded that the fact of its early presence in Europe as a distinct type of dog has to play an important part in our present endeavours because it forms the basis of what we are undertaking today and what we are striving for. Details of the early history of the old ‘Newfoundland dog’ are difficult to find, and we have to unearth them with much diligence from old books, journals and paintings. In the light of these researches the works of Sir Edwin Landseer in so far as they deal with the Landseer dog are of very topical interest. In them we can see the representation of the breed in its original authentic form. We need these pictures because they depict the original type and show the beauty of the breed before the long period of interbreeding with the black Newfoundland. How are we able after one hundred and fifty years to find the right standard for this breed if we do not consult the pictures that Sir Edwin left. They form for us, so to speak, a sort of representation of the standard, because the standard for the breed was drawn up with these pictures as its inspiration. The question as to which ‘Landseer’ pictures by Sir Edwin are in fact still to be found cannot be answered satisfactorily. Most people only know, if at all, his most famous dog painting, and this is already in itself a cause for satisfaction. But in the long run this is not enough, for the books devoted to the Newfoundland which are available in bookshops only deal incompletely with this question, if indeed it is raised at all. Obviously, devotees of the black Newfoundland have only a limited interest in these paintings, because they do not recognize their own dogs in them.

In this context we must look into a contention often made by friends of the Newfoundland, and which has, unfortunately, been published over and over again, that, namely, Sir Edwin painted the black Newfoundland for decorative effect as a black and white Landseer As far as we can tell from consulting the literature, there is not a scrap of evidence for this contention. It is a recent conjecture which does not correspond in any way with the reality of the age in which Sir Edwin lived, worked, and earned a considerable fortune from his commissions. Before the invention of photography a painter had to work as a photographer does nowadays. A commissioned portrait, even in the oasis of a dog, had to be executed so that the gentleman, who in the end paid for the picture, received as realistic a likeness of his dog as was possible. That was what the painter was paid for. The gentleman who had his dog painted in a dignified pose was certainly very proud of the animal. He commissioned the painting in order to have the dog in front of him after its death, and so as to enjoy the possession of a handsome, costly and much esteemed creature. A different colouration would have, however, changed the beast beyond all recognition, which is exactly the opposite of what the gentleman who gave the commission was aiming at. To that extent the afore mentioned contention lacks all credibility.

However, despite this, it is copied and recopied from one publication to another without being subjected to any critical assessment. For these reasons we are glad to be able to print an article which surveys the relevant paintings by Sir Edwin. It should, however, be realized, that the cultural and historical study and publication of the complete works of Sir Edwin Landseer is far from finished. In the 1874 the Royal Academy devoted a great exhibition to the works of the recently deceased artist, are prospective exhibition which brought together 460 paintings, drawings and sketches by the celebrated artist, and which presented a staggering panorama of the work of his long and creative life. Compare that with the Landseer exhibition of 1982 when only 150 pictures were shown in London and Philadelphia.

When Algernon Graves (1845-1922 Art -sales and art-exhibition documenter) compiled his ‘Catalogue of the Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A.’ he based it on the catalogue of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1874, adding to the descriptions of the 460 works exhibited the titles of other paintings with which he was familiar. His work of reference contains 1850 titles arranged in order of their date of composition, and until the present day it has been the only one to appear. As Graves’s catalogue is not illustrated and only mentions the titles of the pictures together with a few pertinent details, it is only in exceptional cases that we can find out in which painting a Newfoundland Dog appears. Some references are unambiguous such as ‘Lion, a Newfoundland Dog’ or Newfoundland Dog and Rabbit’, but Dogs and Frog’ and Friends’ indicate nothing about the breed of dog portrayed.

Read online:

http://www.archive.org/stream/landseer00landrich#page/n5/mode/2up