Copyright Registered

Embossed – Albert Mendelssohn London

Approximately 4.25 inches by 6.5 inches.

……

So, the premise is that Edwin Landseer influenced some people to be more sympathetic to animals.

~ Edwin Landseer was not alone in his affection for animals. England traditionally exercised a great deal of respect for living creatures. Animal rights had been actively discussed through legislation in England since the 1820s (Casteras 345). ~

Source

‘Dumb’ is not the best word for 2016. Henry S. Salt also objected to it ~ 100 years ago –

Voices of the Voiceless

THE fields were full of summer sound;
The lambs were gaily bleating;
Small birds were gossiping around,
Their joyful news repeating;
In tones vociferously clear,
Rooks chatted overhead.
“Sweet creatures! How I love to hear
Dumb animals,” she said.

And as they parleyed, each with each,
Their thoughts and fancies showing,
It seemed as if some flood of speech
This earth were overflowing;
Methought with every breath that moved
A gift of tongues was shed.
“How beautiful! I’ve always loved
Dumb animals,” she said.

Henry S. Salt – in – ‘The Great Kinship’ – edited by Bertram Lloyd, 1921

Read the book online – here.

……

The Poem by John Templeton Lucas

Transcribed –

Edwin Landseer

BORN 1802: DIED OCTOBER 1st, 1873.

He painted nothing mean, his skill was such

That all things gained new grace beneath his touch,

And cold must be the heart that is not taught

Some noble lessons by the works he wrought;

For though the weary head is laid in peace,

The honoured master’s teachings shall not cease.

And still our eyes may see the helpless woe

Of the poor fawn beside the stricken doe;

Still may we see the noble dog that braved

The dashing surf, and his young master saved;

Still learn to love the shepherd’s trusted friend,

As we behold him faithful to the end;

Still may we see him seeking in the snow,

While the lost sheep lie hidden down below.

He gave each thing its fitting attributes,

And showed mankind’s dependency on brutes,

Yet deigned to paint the piper of the bush,

And Reynard, his poor brother of the brush.

And when that way his lighter fancy ran,

Made dogs the pleasant satirists of man.

These were the touches of his lighter hours,

But wilder scenes engaged his giant powers.

He showed us how the monarch of the glen,

On his snow ramparts, far from taunts of men,

Challenged his antlered foe to cross the loch,

And do him battle on the moss-clad rock.

He showed us how they fought by night and died,

And how the fox beheld their humbled pride;

He showed the hound and great hart face to face,

When in death struggles ends the strenuous chase;

He showed the horrors of the Highland flood,

Where all are gathered in one brotherhood.

He showed the desolation of the goal

Which men must dare who seek the icy pole,

And how the king of brutes was subject made,

But never showed he aught which would degrade

The hand that painted, or the eye that saw;

A prince of painters, he obeyed the law,

And put his talents out to good account

To render up his Lord the full amount.

He has not lived in vain whose magic art

Portrayed God’s creatures in the nobler part;

He has not lived in vain whose teaching tends

To human sympathy with our dumb friends.

J. TEMPLETON LUCAS.

Examples of Landseer’s art have been reproduced by animal rights activists for the past 120+ years for use in campaigns.

So, I think that we can agree that Landseer did indeed influence some people to be more sympathetic to animals.

……

However……

Some Say That Landseer Offends Just About Everybody!

Source

~ Landseer’s art gets up a lot of people’s noses. Whether you are a Scottish Nationalist, an animal rights activist, or even simply an animal lover, from the political point of view these pictures are hopelessly, gloriously, deliciously incorrect. The fact that he offends pretty much everybody is part of what I like about him.

And so, Scottish critics object to the way in which Landseer, like Walter Scott, colluded in the tartanisation of Scotland. From his first visit in 1824, his pictures helped to create the image of a country that never existed, one with the phoney “traditions” of pipers and kilts, and an ersatz history featuring chivalrous nobles and a poor but happy peasantry.

To other critics, what is truly unforgivable is that Landseer ignored the poverty, dispossession and social collapse that were taking place in the Highlands during the very years when he was moving from one ducal summer residence to another.

Certainly it is true that the crofters and shepherds in his canvases always have a roof over their heads and a pot on the fire. A number of his paintings show strong, manly gillies kneeling at the slippered feet of effete English noblemen without a hint of irony or criticism.

When you turn to the hunting pictures, he is just as controversial. Even if you are neither anti-hunting nor an animal rights activist, it can be hard to take the cruelty, suffering, and downright sadism he depicts with such apparent relish in The Stag at Bay or The Otter Hunt, two of the most violent pictures ever painted by a British artist.

Now for the defence. Landseer was an artist, not a social critic. His idealised depictions of a medieval Scotland are but another aspect of the Gothic revival that elsewhere in Britain saw the building of Pugin’s Palace of Westminster.

As for his failure to confront the clearances, in the present catalogue it is argued that Landseer may not have seen the worst of them, nor realised the extent of the suffering they caused. And we can no more denigrate him for portraying the savagery of the stag hunt in The Hunting of Chevy Chase than we can take Rubens or Franz Snyders to task for their equally violent depictions of dogs sinking their fangs into the flesh of lions and boars.

Judge Landseer simply as an artist and you quickly conclude that no 19th-century painter apart from Delacroix painted animals in conflict with the same brio and fluency, none applied paint so lusciously, and none created compositions so rich in drama, movement and colour. ~

Source

……

Additional Notes – 

1) Edwin Landseer’s funeral was held on Saturday 10th, October 1973 – details.

2) Tribute poem to Landseer by J. Templeton Lucas. – another copy.

3) Sat 30 Aug 1879

THE monthly meeting of the Fine Arts Section of the Royal Society was held at tho Academy of Art yester-day evening, Mr. E. L. Montefiore, the chairman ofthe section, presiding. The Chairman laid upon the table a collection of very interesting original etchings,by Landseer, and read an exquisite little poem written in commemoration of that artist by Mr. J. Templeton Lucas.

4) Landseer’s work for royalty began with a portrait commission for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. The couple loved the painting and determined to hire him as their court’s official animal painter. His first animal portrait was of Victoria’s favorite King Charles spaniel named Dash. Source.

5) Albert Mendelssohn – Publisher Printer – 44, Great Queen Street, London – here.