“Yours truly,
“Edwd. Cust.”
[18] At Landseer’s sale, 1874, lot 316, “Old Brutus” realized 630l. It must not be forgotten that there are many pictures and studies which bear the names of this dog, and that of his son, another “Brutus.” See below.
[19] In 1874 “A French Hog,” 1814, belonged to the late Mr. J. Hogarth, who then owned another early picture of Sir Edwin’s, called “British Boar,” 1814, which is doubtless the same as the “English Hog” of the text; the animal belonged to Squire Western. As these works were painted in 1814 and etched by E. Landseer in 1818, we have but to remember the national circumstances of that period in order to recognize them as political satires.
[20] The “H.” is always understood as indicating an Honorary Exhibitor, in which capacity the young artist is thrice represented in the catalogue of this the Academy Exhibition for 1815. See below. “Queen Anne Street East” had become “Foley Street” between 1802 and 1815. Landseer, as his sisters tell me, was accepted as an “Honorary Exhibitor” on account of his youth, which was supposed to preclude him from being considered an artist in full.
[21] See “Autobiographical Recollections of the late C. R. Leslie, R.A.” 1860, vol. ii. p. 44.
[22] At the Academy Exhibition, Winter, 1874, No. 144. was “Sir E. Landseer when a Boy.” Drawn by J. Hayter, Esq. Pencil, J. Hayter, Esq.
[23] There appear to be doubts of the extent of E. Landseer’s obligations to Haydon, and the terms employed by the former on this subject (see his “Correspondence,” 1876, ii., p. 288) affirm that the writer had been serviceable to Landseer in making him known, rather than by direct teaching:—“I lent him my dissections from the lion, which he copied, and when he began to show real powers, I took a portfolio of his drawings to Sir George Beaumont’s one day at a grand dinner, and showed them all round to the nobility when we retired to coffee. When he painted his “Dogs,” I wrote to Sir George and advised him to buy it.” “In short, I was altogether the means of bringing him so early into notice. These things may be trifles, but when I see a youth strutting about and denying his obligations to me, I may as well note them down.” “His genius was guided by me.” Again, p. 318 of the same volume, Haydon averred:—“My influence upon English art has certainly been radical. Edwin Landseer dissected animals under my eye, copied my anatomical drawings, and carried my principles of study into animal painting. His genius, thus tutored, has produced sound and satisfactory results.” P. 472 of the same repeats the same claims, and discriminates between the degree of instruction said to have been given to the Landseers generally:—“This was the principle I explained to my pupils; to Eastlake first, and to the Landseers and others afterwards. To Edwin I lent my anatomical studies of the Lion, which guided him to depict dogs and monkeys. Charles and Thomas, Bewick, Harvey, Prentice, Lance, were all instructed in the same principle.” We may add that Mrs. Mackenzie (born Landseer) still owns a human skeleton which was prepared and articulated by her brothers, Thomas and Charles, who occupied a studio at Blenheim Steps, Oxford Street, where they dissected a “subject.”
[24] Forty years before these recollections of ours begin, Foley Street, of the history of which we have already written, was comparatively splendid, and inhabited by persons of distinction. Fuseli had lived in Queen Ann Street East. The neighbourhood was much affected by artists. Mulready had lodged in Cleveland Street, not far off; Newman Street, always artistic, but now so dull and grimy, was then thronged with painters and sculptors; Benjamin West had built himself a gallery there; Stothard (at No. 28) and Banks were numbered among its past, and then present inhabitants. A. E. Chalon was living at No. 71 in Great Titchfield Street; Shee was in Cavendish Square, in the house which had been occupied by F. Cotes and G. Romney; Collins, who was born in Great Titchfield Street, was then at 118, Great Portland Street, and had a house in New Cavendish Street in 1815; Northcote still worked in his gloomy den, 39, Argyll Street; and Edridge, then a fashionable miniature-painter, was at 64, Margaret Street, Cavendish Square; Constable at 63, Upper Charlotte Street, now 76, Charlotte Street, next house on the north side to the church; W. Daniell resided in Cleveland Street, No. 9. Thompson was at No. 11; James Ward at 6, Jackson at 7, Dawe at 22, and Howard at No. 5, in Newman Street; Leslie, as well as Flaxman, in Buckingham Street, Fitzroy Square; the former, with Allston, was at No. 8, the latter at No. 7; Hilton was not remote, at 10, Percy Street; De Wint in the same house; James Heath in Russell Place, Fitzroy Square, No. 15; Hazlitt, then painting portraits in considerable numbers, lived at 109, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. Even so early in the century as the period of which we now write, some painters had flown to the then far west region of Kensington; thus, Wilkie sought the quiet of Phillimore Gardens; and Mulready had settled in the Gravel Pits on the Bayswater Road.
[25] See, on a later page of this volume, Mr. Ruskin’s criticism on “Shoeing,” quoted with the account of the pictures painted in 1846.
[26] It has been stated, and probably with truth, that Edwin Landseer obtained a medal, or a silver palette, from the Society of Arts, and at an earlier date than that in question here. But as artists rarely set much store on lay awards of similar kinds to this, it is only necessary to mention this matter. Contributing a work in a competition like that in view can hardly be classed with the act of exhibiting pictures in the Royal Academy.