Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer
English, 1802-1873
Reclining Lion
INV-1147
Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer
English, 1802-18731816
Reclining Lion
Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer English, 1802-1873 →graphitedrawings (visual works)
Date
1816
Medium
Graphite with touches of white chalk, on cream wove paper
Dimensions
11.5 × 18.1 cm (4 9/16 × 7 3/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
Landseer was an artistic prodigy, drawing animals with great realism by age nine. These included a lion displayed at the London Exeter Exchange menagerie, whose dissected body he may later have viewed in 1820. These sketches (1993.248.1619 and 1993.248.1617) suggest not only the artist’s keen powers of observation, but also provide a contrast to the romanticized works by Delacroix through the depiction of the animal’s sparse, apparently inhumane living quarters. The beloved animal painter of Queen Victoria, Landseer later designed the massive lion sculptures in Trafalgar Square.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Rearing Horse
Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer (English, 1802-1873) after Anthony van Dyck (Flemish, 1599-1641)
Deer (recto); Skull of Giraffe (verso)
Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer (English, 1802-1873) or possibly Richard Ansdell (English, 1815-1885)
Reclining Lion, From Back
Attributed to Edwin Henry Landseer English, 1802-1873
