The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

EDWIN LANDSEER'S " STAG AT BAY:"

This great work of art, which we mentioned in our last
publication as about to be exhibited in Liverpool, is now
on view at Mr. Grundy's repository of art, Church-street.
Many of our readers will, doubtless, remember it as
forming the principal attraction of the Exhibition of the
Royal Academy, last season, and will be glad to have an
opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with it.
It is, we think, the greatest work of its great master,
and will, whilst it endures, be one of the most conspicuous
glories of British art.
_

The subject of the picture is a noble stag, which has
" taken the water " in a highland lake, where he has been
brought "to bay " by a couple of deer-hounds. The
more daring of them has already fallen a victim to his
rashness, and lies in the agonies of death at the feet of his
antagonist, oh whose left brow-antler a tuft of hair tells
the tale of his prowess. The other hound being of a more
prudent valour, and warned by the fate of his companion,
bays the victor at a very discreet distance.
Nothing that we have ever seen in art surpasses the
attitude and expression of the Stag. He stands in the
calm dignity of conscious power, his head thrown up with
an air of defiance, that would be scornful were it less
kingly. Knowing his own power and his assailants feeble-
ness, he magnanimously forbears to attack,—yet knowing
also his foe's insidious cruelty, he maintains a dignified
position of defence.
Landseer has ever been famous for great skill in tlni
technical qualities of art. Fine drawing, a singularly
faithful representation of texture, brilliant and harmonious
colouring, consummate composition, and arrangement of
light and shade, and, above all, a power to animate his
figures, and endue them with those subtle traits of ex-
pression an .l charm tn. that constitute the individuality of
living beings.
In this work, however, we have the manifestation of a
much higher power. He has inspired the mere "brute
creature " with a moral sentiment truly sublime; and the
vigorous impress of this on the canvass is the last triumph
of art. The calmness which always accompanies con-
scious power, and the forbearance to retaliate outrage
on the vanquished, which only the truly great and
naturally pacific can practice, and indomitable will
prevailing even over physical weakness, seems to us the
central idea of .the work. And with what consummate
art is this placed most prominently before the mind !
The head of the stag, with its noble crown of antlers, is
the most carefully elaborated part of the picture ; and, to
increase its force, it is placed in strong relief against the
lightest part of the sky, whilst every other part is subor-
dinate to it, both by a less elaborate handling, and lower
power of relief. The character, too, and treatment of
the accessaries, further enhance the value of the head's
expression. The sky, made up of storm-clouds, flings
its gloom on the lake, whose waters are smitten into
myriad-waved commotion ; the blast-bowed pines that
cover the rocky margin of the lake ;.and a solitary eagle
called by the storm from its eyrie in the far hills, careers
on the tempest, all enhance, by contrast, the calm self-
possession of the antlered conqueror. The manual treat-
ment of the work is in fine harmony with the sublimity
of the subject. All is broad, facile, and full-toned.
Considered as a whole, it is undisputably one of the most
epic pieces of " animal" painting in existence ; and whe-
ther we regard its technical or it sthetical excellence, is
deserving of the careful study of both critic and con-
noisseur.

The picture is being engraved, we perceive, by Tho-
mas Landseer, the brother of the painter, who, judging
from the spirited etching exhibited with the picture, has
caught the inspiration of his subject. We understand
also, that the painter, esteeming this his greatest work,
retains an interest in the engraving, the only instance of
his doing so. It will thus have a singular interest, as
being wholly a production of that gifted family. We
hold every• great artist to be a public benefactor, and
doubtless all who either honour genius, or feel gratitude -
for great public services, will manifest their sentiments by
subscribing to the work.

EFFECTS OF FOUL AlR.—The purity of the air we
breathe, is quite as important as the wholesomeness of
the food we cat. When air is loaded with putrid gases,
from decaying animal and vegetable substances, it becomes
an actual poison. When the air is very foul indeed, it
has been known, in some few instances, to destroy life in
an instant; and very often fatal disease is brought on by
exposure to such air, even for a short time. But the
general effect of impure air is the gradual diminution of
health and strength, not producing actual disease, but
rather that tendency to disease which renders every.sick-
ness with which a person may be attacked, more severe,
more unmanageable, and more frequently fatal.—Why
are Towna Unhealthy •'

JOSEPH'S BODY BORNE FROM EGYPT:—Through-what
a land of poetry and peril was the dead body of Joseph
brought out of Egypt ! What painter is there bold enough
to grapple with such a subject ? Amid all the plagues of
Egypt, there stood the coffin, ready to be borne away—in
the deep darkness which overshadowed the land it has not
forgotten : the pillar of fire flashed upon it by night, and -
by day it moved slowly behind the pillar of cloud :
through the Red Sea it was carried between that high and
terrible wall of waters, which, when it had passed, rolled
back and became the grave of the haughty Egyptians.
Through storm and battle, and the perils of the wilder-
ness, and the thunder which shook Mount Sinai was the
body of that dead man borne. When Moses held up his
wearied arm and conquered Amalek, it was still there.
On the waves of war it was washed to the Promised Land :
it followed the Ark of God when Jordan was divided, and
was at last buried in the fiehi of Sher/ern, in the ground
which Jacob had long' before purchased of the tams of
Bramor.—Pictures of a Country M..-
A rr...1-rrAr fifirxr.". re- r S lin . —The water-
races went off most brilliantly ; but you mast look in the
Amsterdam papers to see who won and who lost, the
prizes not being dangerously heavy in amount. Generally
speaking, as no one from Deptford is overlooking me—l
may venture to say that the speed of the Dutch boats,
which we have been always used to consider safe, but
slow, amazed me. They seemed brisk as well as manage-
able. These yacht club sports are new to the Amsterdam
gentry. How odd it is, by the way, considering our re-
putation for being the grumpiest nation under the sun, to •
see how the terms of English sports are universally natu-
ralised into foreign languages ! Club has become a cos-
mopolite word • the French have laid hold of (jockey ; and •
here was the Dutch announcement so full of Thames lan-
guage that I could make it out ! But more, no foreign
fair now seems complete without an English clown. 1
saw the name of one (I forget it now), flaunting away in
the bills of the fair at Bergamo, in 1845 ; and here is " Mr.
Lavater Lee's company" in all its glory, with dancing on
the tight rope and slack wires ; and the first talent of
England " induced to appear at a prodigious expense !"
Among the riders, leapers, and grinners through a horse-
collar, advertised, are Messrs. Kean and Maeready ! And
(as ie world goes) ninny a fair matron and maid of
Amsterdam wilY sleep the better for having contented her
Anglomania; since, should she cross, on some future day,
the name of our great actor that was--or of our greatest
that is—she can give her opinion thereupon as compla-
cently as Goldsmith's Tenterden lady,—on the strength of
Mr. Lavater Lee's" booth ! Thus, too often, are made
up our judgments of each other all the world over. The
more one travels, the more cautious one feels in criticising
foreign opinions and usages.—Abel Paynter's " Sketches
in the Low Countries," in the People's Journal.
HOLLOWAY'S PILLA, A CERTAIN CURE YOR ASTIIMA.
Read the following cure :—James Holmes, a cotton_spinner, residing at Ancoates, Manchester, had been
asthinatitsd for these last three years. He was frequently
so bad, that when rising from his bed he could scaly
speak or breathe, and would cough and spit for half an,
hour together, and often expected he would be choked..
lie, was much reduced in strength ; and, after every other
means of tore failed, he used these wonderful pills, which
hare removed every symptom of asthma, and hejs nOilir 7.
As free from it as Al
free wasa child '
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