Sir Edwin Henry Landseer R.A. 1802-1873

Frederick. T. Turner, 8 The Cedars, Clapham Common, 1878;

Sir Edward North Buxton, Knighton, Buckhurst Hill, Essex; his sale, Christie's, 10th March 1916, lot 89;

William Sampson and Sons, London;

Private collection

Royal Academy, 1856, no.208;

Royal Academy, The Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., 1874, no.395;

Grosvenor Gallery, 1890;

The Art Journal, 1856, pg.166;

Algernon Graves, Catalogue of The Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., 1874, pg.32;

Estelle M. Hurll, Landseer; A Collection of Pictures with Introduction and Interpretation

The name of Sir Edwin Landseer is synonymous with the powerful depiction of animals, from the majesty of Queen Victoria's hounds and horses to the nobility of the wild lion and polar bear. However, more than any other animal, the Highland red deer is associated with Landseer and his paintings of deer have aquired an iconic status in the history of animal painting and British art in general. Landseer's work of 1851 'The Monarch of the Glen' is one of the most celebrated paintings of the Nineteenth Century, probably the most recognisable image of an animal ever painted. As one writer noted, 'Landseer may be said to have mastered other animals, but the deer mastered him. He raised dogs almost to the level of humanity, but deer raised him to a higher level.' (Virtue and Sons, Landseer's Works, undated, volume 2, p.154) Landseer's paintings of deer, represent the dramatic power of the most wild and magnificent of British beasts and have come to symbolise the beauty and nobility of the untamed highlands, an almost spiritual symbol of freedom and strength, of unrestrained nature at its most awesome. 'The deer was the only animal of which Landseer may be said to have made a special study in its wild state, and whose natural life he may be said to have watched with never-wearying care and pleasure. The beauty of its form, the nobility and grace of its bearing, the cleverness of its instincts, and its courage in extremity, together with the sublimity of its home, gave it a fascination from which Landseer never escaped.' (Virtue and Sons, Landseer's Works, undated, volume 2, pp.153-4). As another biographer pointed out 'In his study of the deer in the Scottish Highlands, Landseer found almost inexhaustible material for his art. In fact, nothing of interest escaped him in the life of this noble animal. If we could have a complete collection of his pictures on this subject, they would set forth the entire story of the deer.' (Estelle M. Hurll, Landseer; A Collection of Pictures with Introduction and Interpretation, pg.67).

Often in Landseer's work, there is an overpowering sense of cruelty and violence in which animals oppose one another, as in the horrific A Swannery Attacked by Sea Eagles (private collection) or pitted against Man in paintings such as The Hunting of Chevy Chase of 1825-6 (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), which depicts the stag hunt as a combat between Man and his quarry. The Highland Nurses in striking contrast, is powerful in the tenderness of the hinds attending their alpha-male in his moment of crisis, a family group bound together in the unity of the moment. The Art Journal was complimentary, 'These nurses are two does that lick the fatal wound of a poor stag that has been shot, and is dying on the highest point of one of the Highland mountains. If it be true that these animals mutually make an effort to relieve the sufferings of each other, it is a most interesting illustration of the fact, but it loses value if only the conception of the painter. The poor stag appears to be beyond appreciating the attentions of the nurses. It is unnecessary to speak of the impressive truth in the drawing and painting of the animals.' (The Art Journal, 1856, page 166). Landseer insisted that the extraordinary event depicted had indeed been witnessed by him, and it is described in the catalogue for the memorial exhibition of Landseer's works, thus 'Sir Edwin, after a day's stalking, fired a random shot to empty his rifle barrel. At midnight, the keeper called him up, the night being moonlight (sic), to shew (sic) him the incident as painted.' (Algernon Graves, Catalogue of The Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., 1874, pg.32). It was said of Landseer, that the only animal for which he felt genuine pity for its plight was the deer and although he did take part in stag hunts, he was primarily an artist and his sportsmanship came second. The deer in their natural environment fascinated Landseer, who found great inspiration in the tribulations of the stag and his herd amid the chilling mists and precipitous rocks which gave the perfect background to his epic scenes of defiance and splendour in the battle of antler and hoof against shotgun and deerhound. In this almost supernatural world the stag is the ethereal lord, the mythical essence of power, embodied in a beast of beauty, grace and courage.

Landseer dedicated The Highland Nurses to Florence Nightingale, seeing in the maternal actions and sympathies of the hinds, an allusion to Nightingale's time at Scutari Hospital in the Crimea. The parallel between human and animal emotions and actions had already been explored in 1834, when Landseer produced a series of eight pen-and-ink drawings entitled The Mothers dedicated to his mistress. These drawings which included a heiffer with her calf and a sow with her piglet did not insult the young lady who was well-known for her love of babies of any species. Her favourite picture was not the donkey and foal or the sheep and lamb, but the drawing Highland Nurse, which depicted a human mother and her infant, gently succling at her breast. Although the composition was clearly unrelated, the title of The Highland Nurses obviously derives from this 1834 drawing.

Painted three years after Landseer's The Monarch of the Glen, The Highland Nurses depicts the same type of stag, noble and beautiful even in his last moments and the drama has a power almost mythic in its intensity and grandeur. A year after exhibiting The Highland Nurses at the Royal Academy, Landseer painted Scene in Braemar, Highland Deer (private collection), which shares similar elements such as the potent virile stag and the contrast of the smaller animals in the foreground like mortals at the feet of a god. The composition of Scene in Braemar, Highland Deer was largely based upon the successes of The Highland Nurses, the central stag being a reinterpretation of The Monarch of the Glen. The red grouse, blanched by the plumage of winter and the browning mountain mosses in The Highland Nurses, suggest the encroachment of the harsh Scottish winter and the wonderful rendering of the rising mists behind the deer, creates a scene of awe which in Landseer's masterly hand have been painted in a way which is suggestive without being cluttered. There is an airiness and spacial intelligence which gives The Highland Nurses a commanding sense of robustness and immediacy and every detail of the animals is perfect in its studied anatomy.

Another picture which relates to The Highland Nurses is The Random Shot of 1848 (Bury Museum and Art Gallery), which would appear to depict a similar, but far more tragic incident in which a doomed faun desperately tries to suckle at the lifeless body of its slain mother. The Children of the Mist (private collection) exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853, marred by a awkward composition, was a similar depiction of a family of deer in more convivial times. Estelle Hurll explained Landseer's respect for the trials of the life of wild animals, 'It has been said by a close observer of animal life that no wild animal dies a natural death. (Ernest Seton-Thompson, Wild Animals I have Known). Every creature of the woods lives in the midst of perpetual dangers from some one of which, sooner or later, he comes to a violent and tragic end. The rigor of the elements sometimes overcomes him, - rain or snow, heat or cold, flood or avalanche, the falling tree or crashing rock. It may be that some other animal which is his natural enemy finally falls upon him and destroys him. The most cruel fate of all is when he falls into the power of the sportsman, matching against the wild creature's instincts his wits, his dogs and his rifle. In such an unequal contest man seldom fails to win.' (Estelle M. Hurll, Landseer; A Collection of Pictures with Introduction and Interpretation, p.68)

Charles North Buxton of the influential banking and brewing family, the second owner of The Highland Nurses, was a keen naturalist and fought hard to save the forests of Epping, Hainaught and Hatfield from development. The wildness of the painting appealed to Buxton's sensibilities as a member of the Commons Preservation Society, set up to preserve Britain's wildernesses. In his work at Epping Forest, Buxton had shown a particular love and respect for the herd of fallow deer dwelling within it's threatened boundaries. Buxton owned a fine collection of modern art, including Leighton's Cleoboulos, King of Rhodes, Instructing his Daughter Cleobuline and After Vespers and pictures by George Leslie and Goodall, the showpieces of his collection being the Landseer and two portraits by George Romney. Two months after the sale of The Highland Nurses from Buxton's collection, The Monarch of the Glen was sold for °5,250, a considerable sum in 1916.

The Highland Nurses was painted when Landseer was at the height of his powers, as shown by his award of a Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1853. It does not appear to have been exhibited since Landseer's memorial exhibition or have been on the auction market for at least half a century. It is an important rediscovery which sheds more light on the genius of one of Britain's greatest painters of all time.