was the work of one sitting, i.e. painted within twelve hours. But perhaps the most wonderful instance of his rapid but sure and dexterous brush-handling was “The Cavalier’s Pets” (1845), the picture of two King Charles’s spaniels in the National Gallery, which was executed in two days. Another remarkable feat consisted in drawing, simultaneously, a stag’s head with one hand and a head of a horse with the other. “Harvest in the Highlands,” and that masterpiece of humour, “Jack in Office,” were exhibited in 1833. In 1834 a noble work of sentiment was given to the world in “Suspense,” which is now at South Kensington, and shows a dog watching at the closed door of his wounded master. Many think this to be Landseer’s finest work, others prefer “The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner” (1837). The over-praised and unfortunate “Bolton Abbey in the Olden Time,” a group of portraits in character, was also shown in 1834, and was the first picture for which the painter received £400. A few years later he sold “Peace” and “War” for £1500, and for the copyrights alone obtained £6000. In 1881 “Man proposes, God Disposes” (1864) was resold for 6300 guineas, and a cartoon of “The Chase” (1866) fetched 5000 guineas. “A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society,” a dog reclining on a quay wall (1838), was succeeded by “Dignity and Impudence” (1839). The “Lion Dog of Malta,” and “Laying down the Law” appeared in 1840. In 1842 was finished the capital “Highland Shepherd’s Home” (Sheepshanks Gift), together with the beautiful “Eos,” a portrait of Prince Albert’s most graceful of greyhounds, to which Thomas Landseer added an ineffable charm and solidity not in the painting. The “Rout of Comus” was painted in the summerhouse of Buckingham Palace garden in 1843. The “Challenge” was accompanied (1844) by “Shoeing the Bay Mare” (Bell Gift), and followed by “Peace” and “War,” and the “Stag at Bay” (1846). “Alexander and Diogenes,” and a “Random Shot,” a dead kid lying in the snow, came forth in 1848. In 1850 Landseer received a national commission to paint in the Houses of Parliament three subjects connected with the chase. Although they would have been worth three times as much money, the House of Commons refused to grant £1500 for these pictures, and the matter fell through, more to the artist’s profit than the nation’s gain. The famous “Monarch of the Glen” (1851) was one of these subjects. “Night” and “Morning,” romantic and pathetic deer subjects, came in due order (1853). For “The Sanctuary” (1842) the Fine Arts jury of experts awarded to the artist the great gold medal of the Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1855.
The “Dialogue at Waterloo” (1850), which he afterwards regarded with strong disapproval, showed how Landseer, like nearly all English artists of original power and considerable fertility, owed nothing to French or Italian training. In the same year he received the honour of knighthood. Next came “Geneva” (1851), “Titania and Bottom” (1851), which comprises a charming queen of the fairies, and the “Deer Pass” (1852), followed by “The Children of the Mist” (1853), “Saved” (1856), “Braemar,” a noble stag, “Rough and Ready,” and “Uncle Tom and his Wife for Sale” (1857). “The Maid and the Magpie” (1858), the extraordinarily large cartoon called “Deer Browsing” (1857), “The Twa Dogs” (1858), and one or two minor paintings were equal to any previously produced by the artist. Nevertheless, signs of failing health were remarked in “Doubtful Crumbs” and a “Kind Star” (1859). The immense and profoundly dramatic picture called “A Flood in the Highlands” (1860) more than reinstated the painter before the public, but friends still saw ground for uneasiness. Extreme nervous excitability manifested itself in many ways, and in the choice (1864) of the dreadful subject of “Man Proposes, God Disposes,” bears clumsily clambering among relics of Sir John Franklin’s party, there was occult pathos, which some of the artist’s intimates suspected, but did not avow. In 1862 and 1863 Landseer produced nothing; but “A Piper and a Pair of Nutcrackers” (1864) revealed his old power. He declined the presidentship of the Royal Academy in 1865, in succession to Sir Charles Eastlake. In 1867 the four lions which he had modelled for the base of the Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square, London, were unveiled, and with “The Swannery invaded by Eagles” (1869) he achieved his last triumph. After four years more, full of suffering, mainly of broken art and shattered mental powers, Sir Edwin Landseer died on the 1st of October 1873, and was buried, ten days later, in St Paul’s Cathedral. Those who would see the full strength of Landseer’s brush should examine his sketches and the like in the Victoria and Albert Museum and similar works. In these he shows himself endowed with the strength of Paul Potter.
See Algernon Graves’s Catalogue of the Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. (London, n.d.); Frederic G. Stephens’s Sir Edwin Landseer (1880); W. Cosmo Monkhouse’s The Studies of Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., with a History of his Art-Life (London, n.d.); W. P. Frith’s My Autobiography and Reminiscences (1887); Vernon Heath’s Recollections (1892); and James A. Manson’s “Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A.,” The Makers of British Art (London, 1902).
LAND’S END, a promontory of Cornwall, forming the western
most point of England. It is a fine headland of granite, pierced
by a natural arch, on a coast renowned for its cliff scenery.
Dangerous reefs lie off the point, and one group a mile from the
mainland is marked by the Longships Lighthouse, in 50° 4′ N.
5° 43′ W. The Land’s End is the westernmost of the granite
masses which rise at intervals through Cornwall from Dartmoor.
The phenomenon of a raised beach may be seen here, but indications
of a submerged forest have also been discovered in the
neighbourhood.
LANDSHUT, a town in the kingdom of Bavaria, on the right
bank of the Isar, 40 m. N.E. of Munich on the main line of railway
to Regensburg. Pop. (1905) 24,217. Landshut is still a
quaint, picturesque place; it consists of an old and a new town
and of four suburbs, one part of it lying on an island in the Isar.
It contains a fine street, the Altstadt, and several interesting
medieval buildings. Among its eleven churches the most noteworthy
are those of St Martin, with a tower 432 ft. high, of St
Jodocus, and of the Holy Ghost, or the Hospital church, all three
begun before 1410. The former Dominican convent, founded
in 1271, once the seat of the university, is now used as public
offices. The post-office, formerly the meeting-house of the
Estates, a building adorned with old frescoes; the royal palace,
which contains some very fine Renaissance work; and the town-hall,
built in 1446 and restored in 1860, are also noteworthy.
The town has monuments to the Bavarian king, Maximilian II.,
and to other famous men; it contains a botanical garden and
a public park. On a hill overlooking Landshut is the castle
of Trausnitz, called also Burg Landshut, formerly a stronghold
of the dukes of Lower Bavaria, whose burial-place was at
Seligenthal also near the town. The original building was erected
early in the 13th century, but the chapel, the oldest part now
existing, dates from the 14th century. The upper part of the
castle has been made habitable. The industries of Landshut
are not important; they include brewing, tanning and spinning,
and the manufacture of tobacco and cloth. Market gardening
and an extensive trade in grain are also carried on.
Landshut was founded about 1204, and from 1255 to 1503 it was the principal residence of the dukes of Lower Bavaria and of their successors, the dukes of Bavaria-Landshut. During the Thirty Years’ War it was captured several times by the Swedes and in the 18th century by the Austrians. In April 1809 Napoleon defeated the Austrians here and the town was stormed by his troops. From 1800 to 1826 the university, formerly at Ingolstadt and now at Munich, was located at Landshut. Owing to the three helmets which form its arms the town is sometimes called “Dreihelm Stadt.”
See Staudenraus, Chronik der Stadt Landshut, (Landshut 1832); Wiesend, Topographische Geschichte von Landshut (Landshut, 1858); Rosenthal, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der Städte Landshut und Straubing (Würzberg, 1883); Kalcher, Führer durch Landshut (Landshut, 1887); Haack, Die gotische Architektur und Plastik der Stadt Landshut (Munich, 1894); and Geschichte der Stadt Landshut (Landshut, 1835).
LANDSKNECHT, a German mercenary foot-soldier of the
16th century. The name (German for “man of the plains”)
was given to mark the contrast between the force of these
