oved throughout the
English-speaking world. There were many homes in England and America
where his pictures were cherished possessions.

While popular opinion is never a safe basis for a critical estimate,
it must be founded on reasons worth considering. In the case of
Landseer there is no doubt that a large element in his success was his
choice of subjects. The hearts of the people are quickly won by
subjects with which they are familiar in everyday life. A universal
love for animals, and especially for domestic pets, prepared a cordial
welcome for the painter of the deer and the dog. His pictures supplied
a real want among the class of people who know and care nothing about
"art for art's sake."

The dramatic power with which Landseer handled his subjects was the
deeper secret of his fame. He knew how to tell a story with a simple
directness which has never been surpassed. With almost equal facility
for humor and pathos, he alternated between such inimitable satire as
the Jack in Office and such poignant tragedy as the Highland
Shepherd's Chief Mourner. Before pictures like these, the keenest
criticism must confirm the popular verdict. Poetic imagination is one
of the most coveted of the artist's gifts, and Landseer's rich
endowment commands universal admiration.

The artist who is a story teller finds it one of the most difficult
tasks to keep within proper limits. He is under a constant temptation
to emphasize his point too strongly, to exaggerate his meaning in
order to make it plain. That Landseer never fell into such error none
would dare to claim. In interpreting the emotions of dumb animals he
sometimes overdrew, or seemed to overdraw, their resemblance to human
beings. Only those who have observed animals as closely as he--and how
few they are--are competent to decide in this matter. When one
thoroughly considers the question, the wonder is less that he
sometimes made mistakes, than that he made so few. As a sympathetic
critic has said: "Nothing short of the most exquisite perception of
propriety on his part could have enabled him to give innumerable
versions of the inner life of animals with so little of the
exaggeration and fantasticalness which would have easily become
repugnant to the common sense of Englishmen."[1]

[Footnote 1: Henrietta Keddie ("Sarah Tytler").]

Among Landseer's technical qualities the critic has highest praise for
his drawing. He was a born draughtsman, as we see in the astonish