A full size écorché study of a hound

Charles Landseer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charles Landseer belonged to a celebrated family of artists. His father was the engraver and antiquary John George Landseer (1753–1862) and his brothers the engraver Thomas Landseer (1793–1880), and celebrated animal painter Edwin Henry Landseer (1802–1873). In 1815 Charles and Thomas began training under Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846) who exposed them to a rigorous method of anatomical drawing that involved sketching from cadavers and making dissections, as well as more traditional practices such as copying prints and drawings. Around 1817 Edwin took up the same course of study, and the three brothers continued until 1822, using black, red and white chalks on buff or gray wove wrapping papers. Since the three often worked side by side, used identical materials and rarely signed their drawings, questions of authorship often arise. Close comparative study has, however, led this life-size study of a hound to be given to Charles.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art