Bloodhounds in Chase

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-73)

1825-26

Inscribed “Lady of Lake”

Source: “Studies and Sketches by Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.” (1875): 129

“Lent by Frederick A. Millbank, Esq., M.P..”

Formatting and text by George P. Landow.

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Commentary in the Art-Journal

The valuable book of Landseer’s sketches which Mr. Milbank, M.P., has so kindly placed at our disposal for this series of illustrated papers, supplies us with three more subjects, varied and interesting. The first, introduced on this page, is a sketch in pencil, suggested by a passage in the seventh stanza of the first canto of Scott’s “Lady of the Lake," where the hunted stag is described as being pursued by “two dogs of black St. Hubert’s breed;” they are referred to also as “bloodhounds staunch," and as having alone been able to sustain the chase. The idea of rapid motion is wonderfully conveyed in the action of the stag and that of one of the dogs; the other seems dead heat, either by weariness or by having received some injury. In the middle distance is a horseman swimming across the lake, accompanied by some objects too indefinite to be characterised. It is a wild sketch, as if Landseer had played with his pencil in a fanciful and halfunmeaning mood after jotting down the main idea; but there is amazing vigour of expression in every line. [129]

Bibliography

“Studies and Sketches by Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.” Art-Journal (1875): 129-31. Hathi Trust version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 23 March 2014

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Last modified 23 March 2014