Charles Landseer, RA (1799-1879)
Charles Landseer was born in London on 12 August 1799. Like his younger brother, Edwin, he first studied with his father, the engraver John Landseer, and then under Benjamin Robert Haydon and at the Royal Academy Schools (1816). During his twenties, he accompanied Sir Charles Stuart de Rothesay on a voyage to Portugal and then to South America, in order to negotiate a commercial treaty with Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. The evocative and informative drawings that he made on the tour were received with great interest when shown on his return, in 1828, at the British Institution. In the same year, he began to exhibit the historical and literary genre subjects for which he would be best known, his first work at the Royal Academy being Dorothea, a scene from Cervantes’ Don Quixote.
Other notable RA exhibits included Clarissa Harlowe in the Sponging House (1833) and the Plundering of the Basing House, 1645 (1836) (both Tate). Elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1837, and a full academician in 1845, he acted as Keeper of the RA Schools between 1851 to 1873, with particular responsibility for the antique class. However, this position exposed him to accusations of nepotism and criticisms of inadequacy as a teacher. Occasionally, he also worked as an illustrator but, while he contributed to Finden’s Illustrations to the Life and Works of Lord Byron (1833-34), his most important achievements in the field, with texts by W Scrope, were published posthumously; these comprised Days of Deerstalking (1883) and Days and Nights of Salmon Fishing (1898). He died in London on 22 July 1879.
