Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, R.A.

Probably bought c.1829 by William Wells of Redleaf, Penshurst, Kent and with him until his death in 1863 when it was bequeathed to his nephew Billy Wells of Holme Wood, Huntingdonshire;
His sale, Christie’s, London, 10 May 1890, lot 42 as The Shepherd's Grave, bought 'Agnew';
Thomas Agnew & Sons, London;
Sotheby’s, London, 19 November 1968, lot 155

London, British Institution, 1829, no.256;
Manchester, Art Treasures, 1857, no. 345;
London, Royal Academy, The Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., Winter 1874, no.362;
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., October 1981 - January 1982, no.61, with tour to Tate Gallery, London (lent by Mark Birley).

Athenaeum, no.67, 11 February 1829, p.93;
The Times, 12 February 1829, p.2f;
Examiner, no.1098, 15 February 1829, p.100;
The Landseer Gallery, London, 1871, illustrated pl.14;
Cabel Scholefield Mann, The Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer interleaved with photographic reproductions and extensive annotations, vol.1, 1874-77, p.112;
Algernon Graves, Catalogue of the Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, London, 1876, no.232, p.20;
The Landseer Gallery, London, 1878, illustrated pl.17;
Magazine of Art, 1891, p.388;
James A. Manson, Sir Edwin Landseer, London, 1902, pp.90-91;
Campbell Lennie, Landseer: The Victorian Paragon, London, 1976, pp.91-92;
Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, Thames & Hudson, London, 1982, illustrated p.104

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar Ltd, 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James', London SW1Y 6BU: Structural Condition The artist's panel is providing a secure and stable structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a remarkably discoloured varnish layer and would undoubtedly be transformed by cleaning. There are also some drips on the varnish layers and inspection under ultra-violet light shows only the most minimal spots of inpainting in the upper left of the sky. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good and stable condition and should be transformed by cleaning and revarnishing. Held in a gilt plaster frame.
"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."

Exhibited in 1829 The Poor Dog preceded Landseer's famous The Old Shepherd's Chief Mourner (fig. 1, Victoria and Albert Museum) by eight years. Treating a similar theme of canine empathy and melancholic pathos, the two pictures depict faithful sheepdogs mourning for their recently dead masters. Here the ground has been recently dug for the shepherd's grave and the epitaph on the tombstone is only half-completed. As Richard Ormond has noted: 'There is a sense of solitude and desolation, emphasized by the flat landscape stretching away behind, a church to the left, and storm clouds. Pathos is implicit, too, in the artist's observation of the texture of the stone, the clods, and the dog's coat.' (Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, Thames & Hudson, London, 1982, p.104).

In the same year that Landseer painted The Poor Dog, he also produced Attachment (private collection) which depicts a similar dog a terrier mourning the death of a young man who has fallen from a precipice while walking in the Lake District. This scene was based upon a poem by Walter Scott. It has been pointed out that in Attachment, the dog takes the place of a wife or mistress and can therefore be interpreted as a parody of human grief. Although contemporary, Attachment was exhibited at the Royal Academy a year after A Poor Dog which must therefore be considered to be an earlier example of Landseer demonstrating a trait in his work that was to become a hallmark, the idea of fidelity symbolised by the figure of a melancholic dog. Whilst the dog is not physically anthropomorphosed, it reflects human emotions. A review of its first exhibition of 1829 in The Times described The Poor Dog as capturing 'human thoughts and passions' in the attitude of the collie which gave 'an interest and power which they could not otherwise excite' (The Times, 12 February 1829, p.2f).

The Poor Dog was one of many fine pictures by Landseer owned by one of his most loyal and prolific patrons, William Wells (1768-1847), a former ship-builder turned landowner. His patronage was so extensive that Landseer came to regard Wells' estate in Kent as a second home where he had a studio in which to work, often for long periods of time. Wells owned thirty-three pictures by Landseer, including a spectacular scene of stags fighting in the Highlands entitled None but the Brave Deserve the Fair of 1838 (Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, 5 December 1975, lot 51), The Sanctuary (Royal Collection) which was bought from Wells by Queen Victoria as a birthday present for Prince Albert in 1842, and Low Life and High Life of 1829 (Tate). He was the Director of the British Institution where The Poor Dogwas first exhibited in 1829. His passion for sport was matched by his appetite for art and among the artists represented in his collection were David Roberts, William Mulready, Clarkson Stanfield, J.M.W. Turner and Sir David Wilkie. When William Wells died in 1863 much of his collection passed to his nephew Billy, who was also a hospitable friend to Landseer (a correspondence of two hundred letters at the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum document their friendship).

We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.