Sir Edwin was not a very good business man, and he left the management of all his affairs to his father, who sold his pictures for him and kept his accounts.
Landseer was only sixteen years old when he exhibited his wonderful picture called "Fighting Dogs Getting Wind." A very rich man whose praise meant a great deal at that time bought the picture, and Sir Edwin's success was assured. After that so many people brought their pets for him to paint that he had to keep a list, and each must wait his turn.
It was about this time, too, that he painted an old white horse in the stable of another wealthy man. After the picture was finished, ready to deliver, it suddenly disappeared. Search was made for it everywhere, but it was not found until twenty-four years afterwards. A servant had stolen it and hidden it in a hayloft. He was afraid to sell it, or even to keep it in his home, for every one would recognize the great artist's work.
At the age of twenty-four, Landseer became a member of the Royal Academy, which was an unusual honor for so young a man.
The story is told that at an evening party in the home of a well-known leader of society in London where Landseer was present, the guests had been talking about skill with the hands. One of the guests said that no one had ever been found who could draw two things at once. Landseer remarked, "Oh, I can do that; lend me two pencils, and I will show you."
He then quickly drew the head of a horse with one hand, at the same time drawing a deer's head and antlers with the other hand. Both sketches were so good that they might well have been drawn with the same hand and with much more study.
Landseer made a special study of lions, too, and painted many pictures of them. The great lions at the base of the famous Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square, London, were modeled by him.
Although Landseer painted so many wild animals, birds, and hunting scenes, he did not care to hunt or shoot. Sometimes he would hire guides to take him into the wildest parts in search of game. But these guides felt thoroughly disgusted with him when, a great wild deer bounding toward them, he would merely make a sketch of it in his book.
Landseer knew how to use a gun, however, and sometimes did use it with great success. But it was the study of live animals that interested him most. He often said that to kill a bird was to lose it.
He believed that animals understand, feel, and reason just like people; so he represented them in his pictures as happy, sad, gay, dignified, frivolous, rich, poor, and in all ways just like human beings.