He had made some
studies in the Zoological Gardens, but as he always preferred
working from the live model, he arranged that an elderly and
peculiarly docile lion should be brought to his house from the Zoo
in a furniture van attended by two keepers. Should any one wish to
know what that particular lion looked like, they have only to
glance at the base of the Nelson pillar. On paying an afternoon
call, it is so unusual to find a live lion included amongst the
guests, that my mother's perturbation at finding herself in such
close proximity to a huge loose carnivore is, perhaps, pardonable.
Landseer is, of course, no longer in fashion as a painter. I quite
own that at times his colour is unpleasing, owing to the bluish
tint overlaying it; but surely no one will question his
draughtsmanship? And has there ever been a finer animal-painter?
Perhaps he was really a black-and-white man. My family possess
some three hundred drawings of his: some in pen and ink, some in
wash, some in pencil. I personally prefer his very delicate pencil
work, over which he sometimes threw a light wash of colour.
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