The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-11 00:00:00

" The lam!.

Intensity of brute repow----ih-e-;lse
Bench like sagacity of brow—the lame
Jaw of the old store if ilenlrorough size."

Of Landseer's other great works, "Bolton Abbey," one
of his earlier productions, is the beet known ; and the
scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream, perhaps stall
points the most remarkable, as it will be the most en-
during. memorial of his genius, if only from the really
exquisite manner in which it has been engraved. The
weird fancy and wild devilry of the scene, if anything
more than realize even Shakespeare's conceptions;
while, of course, the head of the donkey is painted only
as Landseer could paint • donkey in such • case. But
,he could paint anything, and 'lf you please, Sir,
did you order a lion " was the inquiry of his
matter-of-fact servant when they had sent • dead one
from the Zoological Gardens, and the man was in some
doubt as to whether he should 'take it in." The hard
black llnesincbrule bars thrown across Van Amburgh
in his den tell against the effect but the lion. of Tra-
falgarsquare, in all their massive grand simplicity,
will vie even with the painter's fame, and share in
after ages the honours of " Bottom and Titania,"
" Alexander and Diogenes," and the "Shepherd's
, Chief Mourner." It is related by Livy of Amilius
that, accompanied by his son Scipio, he made a tour
through Greece, after his victorious campaign, for the
purpose of seeing the beautiful monuments of ancient
art with which that country abounded • and that
when, in Olympia, he viewed the statue Of Jove, he
is said to have uttered these memorable words—' This
Jupiter of Phidias is the Jupiter of Homer.' In
humble imitation, may I be allowed to say, ' This
goat must be from the pencil of Edwin Landseer.
The snub nose, the long beard, the placid eye,
the turabrous horn, the beautifully-formed ear, and the
waving coat are truly characteristic." So wrote Nimrod,
when contemplating • pencil sketch of the head of
a goat; but there was power and truth in Landseer's
merest outlines, and engravings, it is said, have been
taken from "pictures" on the backs of letters, as we
remember once seeing in the hand. of Ryall, the en-
graver, some scarcely traceable shooting "bits" which
were about to be transferred to steel. Still, admirable
as are his outlines, the finishing touch in his pictures is
yet more delightful; the kindly " texture " in the
coats of his animals, the deep, softened, contemplative
eye' the cold, moist nostril—all these tell of his power
and troth. And yet, alas! many of his pictures do
not wear well, but grow thin' faded, and chalky, as at
times, no doubt, he worked too fast. Landseer cared
but little for sport in the way of art unless there were
• dash of the picturesque about it, and his best por-
trait., as mere portraits of animals, are those of Mr.
Wigram'n three hunters—horses in high condition, with
squared tails and well-combed manes, out at grass, ad.
tunably grouped, and, as Nimrod says of the goat's head
" truly characteristic." But we ehould think he went
to work with • Setter will on the old gray hack hung
up to dry, where the accessories of the stable and the
foxhound kennel tell out the story. His force were
seldom so good ; they lacked the wiry varmint locks of
"traveller. ;" and the quasi-indifference of the barn.
door-fed gentleman in "Not Caught Yet" would seem
as much attributable to satiety as suspicion. But then
no man could ever quite paint • fox. For the racehorse
Sir Edwin had litt'e liking, as even his Voltigenr at
the stud is a failure ; and by far the beet thing in this
way is the political squib of "Protection," where Mr.
Disraeli, as the jockey, is the high-bred, broken.
down cheanut, dreadfully distressed, off the coarse;
"Free Trade," the fat pnze cart•horse, is mit by any
means so good ; and when Landseer went in for cattle
he would return to Chillingham to study the white hull
In his native (witnesses. Sir Edwin was also at one
time a frequent guest at Woburn Abbey, where, if we
remember aright, he melted down the prize trophies
and remodelled these for a grand centre-piece.