First Acquaintance with Dickens—Designs an Illustration for "The Cricket on the Hearth"—Elected a Royal Academician—Receives the Honour of Knighthood—Declines the Presidency of the Royal Academy—Severe Illness and Death.

Charles Dickens first became acquainted with Sir Edwin Henry Landseer during the "Nickleby" period, and ever entertained the highest admiration and personal regard for this famous artist, to whom Thackeray once referred as "a sort of aristocrat among painters." Sir Edwin was an artist by hereditary right and family instinct, being the eldest son of the well-known engraver, John Landseer, A.R.A. He was born in London in 1802, and at the age of thirteen exhibited two pictures at the Royal Academy, thus proving that he possessed most exceptional powers as a draughtsman even at this early period.

The Cricket on the Hearth, 1846.It is perhaps not generally remembered that Sir Edwin Landseer has a just claim to be numbered among the Illustrators of Dickens. Though he made but a single design, it is indubitably a masterpiece, and suffices to indicate the admirable skill acquired by this great painter in depicting what may be considered his favourite subject—the dog. The charming little woodcut of "Boxer"—the irrepressible companion of John Peerybingle, in "The Cricket on the Hearth"—defies criticism.

Plate LIII

SIR JOHN TENNIEL, R.I.
From a Photograph by
Messrs. BASSANO

Lent by the Artist.

The dog's head was added by Sir Edwin himself.

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.
From the Painting by
Sir FRANCIS GRANT, P.R.A.

In 1825, Sir Edwin (then Mr.) Landseer was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and five years later he attained the full honours, from which date might be chronicled a long and regular catalogue of pictures exhibited by him, year by year, either at the British Institution or on the walls of the Royal Academy. In 1850 he received the honour of Knighthood, and, at the death of Sir Charles Eastlake in 1865, was offered the Presidency of the Royal Academy,—a distinction which he could not be induced to accept. In 1871 a severe illness paralysed his powerful pencil; from this illness the artist never recovered, and two years later the mournful intelligence of his death was announced, his mortal remains being interred in St. Paul's Cathedral. In private life Sir Edwin was one of the most kind and courteous of men and warmest of friends,—qualities of mind and heart which endeared him to all with whom he came in contact.

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