Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, R.A.

The Artist's studio sale, London, Christie's, 8th-14th May 1874, lot 139 (as "a dead roe deer", bt. by Agnew for £173.5);
from whom bought by the grandfather of the late owner

Sheffield, City Art Galleries, Landseer, 6th February - 12th March 1972, no. 92;
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer in the Highlands, 14th April - 10th July 2005, no. 49

R. Ormond, The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer in the Highlands, Edinburgh 2005, p. 54, illus. pl. 49

The following condition report is provided by Rebecca Gregg, who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. The board support is in good condition with a convex curvature which appears stable and no significant damages. There is a paper label attached to the reverse. The paint layers appear in very good condition. There is a network of fine craqulure, predominantly located at the edges of the support. There is evidence of lifting of the ground layer along these fine horizontal cracks at the top edge and the lower left quadrant; however the overall adhesion between the paint and ground layers and the support appears stable. There are no significant damages or loss. The lighter, matt drips in the upper right do not fluoresce under ultra violet examination. These appear to partially consist of a layer of paint, although there is no evidence that they cover any significant damage or loss to the paint layers. There is a minor area of possible retouching located in the deep green area above the stag’s head. There is a patchily applied, fluorescing varnish layer present. This layer is more thickly applied across the areas of paint, applied with artistic brushy effect. The painting was examined in the frame and was glazed.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This beautiful, unfinished sketch forms part of a body of work from the late 1820s and early 1830s relating specifically to stalking and highland life. Consisting mostly of pictures of dead stags, in contrast to his later series of paintings focusing on the theme of the 'Heroic Stag', these works are the product of the artist's deep love of the sport, and his affinity with Highland life. Also included in this group are the dramatic Deer and Deerhounds in a Mountain Torrent (Tate Britain, London), exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1833, and the large scale Highlanders Returning from Deerstalking (Alnwick Castle) of 1827. Though many of these paintings are sporting groups which include portraits of Landseer's aristocratic friends and patrons, not all of them are, and the present study, like the latter, is one of a range of pictures which promoted the image and ethos of the Highlands for its own sake. The focus of the picture is the stag itself, draped over a rock, its head hanging limp, the composition emphasising the pathos of the quarry - a characteristic trait in Landseer's dark romantic vision of Highland sport. Behind the body of the stag a resting ghillie sits with his back to us, reclining with one of his hounds against the body of the stag, whilst the other inspects the ground below.

Landseer was absorbed in all aspects of stalking and was deeply impressed by the character and resourcefulness of the keepers and ghillies he stalked with. They feature in many of his sketches from this period and are characterised by a hardiness which reflects the rugged wilderness in which they were brought up. As Ormond observes in his catalogue to the 2005 Edinburgh exhibition, in which this painting featured, the unfinished nature of this painting, which is in perfect, untouched condition, provides tantalising evidence of Landseer's working method in this early period of his career. The confidence with which the artist establishes the main lines of the composition is startling; deftly sketching out the resting ghillie and his two hounds in monochrome, whilst the high degree of finish in the body of the stag, with every hair of the pelt delineated, is a magnificent display of painterly virtuosity.

Though this painting does not appear to be a direct study for a known exhibition piece, but rather an unfinished work in its own right, the composition is one Landseer would return to over thirty years later in An Event in the Forest, painted in circa 1865.¹ The picture is now untraced but an engraving after it by the artist's brother, Thomas Landseer, shows the body of the stag almost unchanged from its position in the present work, at the bottom of a forbidding ravine, and reflects the artist's return to earlier deer subjects in his later career.

1. See R. Ormond, The Monarch of the Glen, Landseer in the Highlands, Edinburgh 2005, p. 124, fig. 140