page_title: Edwin Landseer
section_title: Sculpture
hierarchical_section_title: Edwin Landseer / Sculpture
caption_attribution_description: English: Empire Lion at Trafalgar Square, guarding (or devouring) the Palace of Westminster.
context_page_description: Sir Edwin Henry Landseer RA was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
context_section_description: In 1858 the government commissioned Landseer to make four bronze lions for the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, following the rejection of a set in stone by Thomas Milnes. Landseer accepted on condition that he would not have to start work for another nine months, and there was a further delay when he asked to be supplied with copies of casts of a real lion he knew were in the possession of the academy at Turin. The request proved complex, and the casts did not arrive until the summer of 1860. The lions were made at the Kensington studio of Carlo Marochetti, who also cast them. Work was slowed by Landseer's ill health, and his fractious relationship with Marochetti. The sculptures were installed in 1867.
caption: One of four Lions around the base of Nelson's Column
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