Framed Pair of Original Landseer Engravings - Stags

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DAY 1 | Antiquities, Asian, Russian, Fine Art...

By Artemis Gallery

Jun 20, 2018

Set Reminder 2018-06-20 10:00:00 2018-06-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : DAY 1 | Antiquities, Asian, Russian, Fine Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/day-1-antiquities-asian-russian-fine-art-3276
Day 1 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional art from around the world Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Artist Edwin Henry Landseer (British, 1802-1873), Engraver Thomas Landseer (British, 1795-1880), "Victor of the Glen" (1868) and "The Stag at Bay" (1865); published in London by Louis Brall, 1868 and 1865 respectfully. A pair of original, antique, black and white steel engravings set in their original gilded and silvered Jack-in-the-Pulpit frames behind the original antique glass. "Victor of the Glen" depicts a dramatic confrontation between two stags in the Scottish Highlands. Notice how the victor is braying to the sky, while the other stag is yielding on the ground, as three does look on from a distance. In "The Stag at Bay" we see the animals from a low eye level. Landseer has silhouetted the stag against the moody sky, and brought the scene so close to the viewer that the dogs are partially cut off at the bottom edge as if just escaping the hunter's telescope or spy glass at the water's edge. Size: 38.75" W x 23.5" H (98.4 cm x 59.7 cm); 45.25" W x 30.375" H (114.9 cm x 77.2 cm) including frames
  
  Landseer had the ability to create photorealistic depictions that demonstrate his first-hand knowledge of the subject as well as empathy for the animals. He provides a view of the quarry that only a sportsman could have attained with his telescope. Interestingly, Landseer also created a series of drawings called, "The Forest" that included circular format compositions, suggesting such telescopic views. Complementing this intense sense of reality is a theatrical quality captured in the natural surrounds - the strong rays of light, the mist rising from the lake, and the eagle overhead awaiting carrion, add to the impactful scene. Both "Stag at Bay" and "Victor of the Glen" create remarkable emotional dramas.
  
  According to scholar Diana Donald, "Landseer had close links with the sphere of zoological art through his friendship with [Joseph] Wolf and through the activities of his own brothers, Charles and Thomas Landseer, both of whom were occasionally employed as illustrators of popular books on natural history. However, his paintings had a scale, dramatic power and imaginative exaltation that set them apart from such works. They were history paintings, but of a completely original kind, in the sense that they invested the lives of animals themselves with tragic grandeur. That this could be done so convincingly is itself evidence of great changes in attitudes to nature in the nineteenth century: the profound philosophical implications of the discoveries in geology, paleontology and evolutionary theory which I have outlined placed animals at the forefront of consciousness. As a writer in the London Quarterly Review put it in 1874, Landseer painted 'the poetry of animal life, running so curiously parallel to the poetry of human life'"(Diana Donald, Picturing Animals in Britain, 1750-1850, p. 94).
  
  Inscriptions below "The Stag at Bay" engraving: "Painted by Edwin Landseer - London Published Dec. 23rd 1865 by Louis Brall, 6 Great Prescot St. - Engraved by Thomas Landseer" "The Stag At Bay." "To the Most Noble the Marquis of Breadalbane (with a Coat of Arms) this Engraving from the Original Picture in his Lordship's Collection is with permission most respectfully dedicated by His Lordship's Most Obedient Servants Henry Graves and Comp(any)"
  
  Inscriptions below "Victor of the Glen" engraving: "Copyright Secured." "Victor of the Glen." "London Published June 23rd 1868 by L. Brall Gt. Prescot St. Goodman's Fields."
  
  Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #134686

  Condition

  These are original engravings set in their original Jack-in-the-Pulpit gilded and silvered frames behind the original antique glass. Frames show slight surface wear with minor scratches and nicks here and there, but are in otherwise excellent condition, as is the antique glass (save one inherent bubble on glass covering "Victor of the Glen". Slight staining to lower and right margins of "Stag at Bay" that does not encroach upon the engraved image. "Victor of the Glen" shows only slight wear to the margins and is generally excellent.
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