dogs and horses painted by Landseer, with nobility incidentally
introduced, or vice versa, if you prefer.

It was in Eighteen Hundred Thirty-five that Landseer began to paint the
pets of the royal family, and the friendly intimacy then begun continued
up to the time of his death in Eighteen Hundred Seventy-three.

In the National Academy are sixty-seven canvases by Landseer; and for the
Queen, personally, he completed over one hundred pictures, for which he
received a sum equal to a quarter of a million dollars.

Landseer's career was one of continuous prosperity. In his life there was
neither tragedy nor disappointment. His horses and dogs filled his
bachelor heart, and when Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart bayed and barked
him a welcome to that home in Saint John's Wood where he lived for just
fifty years, he was supremely content.

His fortune of three hundred thousand pounds was distributed at his
death, as he requested, among various servants, friends and needy
kinsmen.

Landseer had no enemies, and no detractors worth mentioning. That his
great popularity was owing to his deference to the spirit of the age goes
without saying. He never affronted popular prejudices, and was ever alert
to reflect the taste of his patrons. The influence of passing events was
strong upon him: the subtlety of Turner, the spiritual vision of Fra
Angelico, the sublime quality of soul (that scorned present reward and
dedicated its work to time) of Michelangelo were all far from him.

That he at times attempted to be humorous by dressing dogs in coats and