class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Peace

37     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 39 VIII.   War 43     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 45 IX.   A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society 49     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 51 X.   A Naughty Child 55     Picture from Photograph of the original Painting 57 XI.   The Sleeping Bloodhound 61     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 63 XII.   The Hunted Stag 67     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 69 XIII.   Jack in Office 73     Picture from Photograph of the original Painting 75 XIV.   The Highland Shepherd's Chief Mourner 79     Picture from Photograph of the original Painting 81 XV.   A Lion of the Nelson Monument 85     Picture from Photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl 87 XVI.   The Connoisseurs (See Frontispiece) 91

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INTRODUCTION

I. ON LANDSEER'S CHARACTER AS AN ARTIST.

If the popularity of a painter were the measure of his artistic greatness, Sir Edwin Landseer's would be among the foremost of the world's great names. At the height of his career probably no other living painter was so familiar and so well beloved throughout the English-speaking world. There were many homes in England and America where his pictures were cherished possessions.

While popular opinion is never a safe basis for a critical estimate, it must be founded on reasons worth considering. In the case of Landseer there is no doubt that a large element in his success was his choice of subjects. The hearts of the people are quickly won by subjects with which they are familiar in everyday life. A universal love for animals, and especially for domestic pets, prepared a cordial welcome for the painter of the deer and the dog. His pictures supplied a real want among the class of people who know and care nothing about "art for art's sake."

The dramatic power with which Landseer handled his subjects was the deeper secret of his fame. He knew how to tell a story with a simple directness which has never been surpassed. With almost equal facility for humor and pathos, he alternated between such inimitable satire as the Jack in Office and such poignant tragedy as the Highland Shepherd's Chief Mourner. Before pictures like these, the keenest criticism must confirm the popular verdict. Poetic imagination is one of the most coveted of the artist's gifts, and Landseer's rich endowment commands universal admiration.

The artist who is a story teller finds it one of the most difficult tasks to keep within proper limits. He is under a constant temptation to emphasize his point too strongly, to exaggerate his meaning in order to make it plain. That Landseer never fell into such error none would dare to claim. In interpreting the emotions of dumb animals he sometimes overdrew, or seemed to overdraw, their resemblance to human beings. Only those who have observed animals as closely as he—and how few they are—are competent to decide in this matter. When one thoroughly considers the question, the wonder is less that he sometimes made mistakes, than that he made so few. As a sympathetic critic has said: "Nothing short of the most exquisite perception of propriety on his part could have enabled him to give innumerable versions of the inner life of animals with so little of the exaggeration and fantasticalness which would have easily become repugnant to the common sense of Englishmen."