Artist Edwin Henry Landseer (British, 1802-1873). Engraver Thomas Landseer (British, 1795-1880). "Monarch of the Glen" (1868) - steel engraving before letters. A very large, antique, black and white steel engraving - created before letters by Sir Edwin Landseer and entitled "Monarch of the Glen". Landseer presents a proud twelve point stag (a royal) surrounded by his family in the majestic highlands of Scotland beneath the majestic skies dotted by soaring birds. Size: 17.5" L x 31.375" W (44.4 cm x 79.7 cm) Size with margins: 21.875" L x 35.875" W (55.6 cm x 91.1 cm)
Landseer had the ability to create photorealistic depictions that demonstrated first-hand knowledge of his subjects as well as empathy for the animals. He provided 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 dramatic contrasts between light and dark as well as the manner in which the herd looks to the stag and the bird of prey flies overhead - perhaps awaiting carrion, all adding to the dramatic impact of the scene.
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).
Provenance: Jon and Mary Williams private art collection, Denver, Colorado, USA
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#166583
Condition
Slight toning and minor tears/losses to peripheries that do not impact the image. Protected between cellophane and heavy cardstock, but should be able to be removed and matted and/or framed if desired.