Provenance
The Artist's Studio; sale, Christie's, 11 May 1874, lot 318, sold for £1,050.
Joseph Fenton Esq; sale, Christie's, 5 May 1879, lot 171, bt. Agnew for £325.10.
James Hall Renton; sale, Christie's, 30 April 1898, lot 83, bt. Mclean for £173.5.
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 19 November 1986, lot 121.
The McEwan Gallery, Aberdeenshire.
Private collection, Canada (acquired from the above 24 December 1986).

Exhibited
London, Royal Academy Winter Exhibition, The works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., 1874, no. 368.

Literature
A. Graves, (ed), Catalogue of the Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, 1874, p. 8.

Sir Edwin Landseer began exhibiting at the Royal Academy at the age of 16, his diverse subjects including historical genre, portraits, caricatures, Scottish scenes and animal paintings. In the 1830s, paintings of 'The Noble Dog' were prominent in Landseer's oeuvre, to such an extent that the black and white variant of the Newfoundland breed became known as 'The Landseer'. Large breeds of dogs such as Newfoundlands and St. Bernards were particularly popular in early 19th century society. Landseer's paintings of Newfoundlands are now in various public collections, notably Venus (1819) was recently acquired by the Russell-Cotes Museum and Lion (1823) in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum.

The Newfoundland in the present lot is Neptune, a dog whom Landseer painted a number of times during this period; see for example Christie's, London, 12 December 2013, lot 31, a larger scale depiction of Neptune which was commissioned by the banker W.D. Gosling. Neptune is also depicted in The Twa Dogs which was gifted by John Sheepshanks to the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1857. The present lot was exhibited in the Royal Academy Winter Exhibition and sold in Landseer's studio sale in 1874.

Landseer adeptly captures the dogs's character in the present lot; as Richard Ormond notes 'Landseer's detailed anatomical knowledge – his wonderful feeling for the character and texture of animal life – satisfied the quasi-scientific outlook of his audience, while his visual stories allowed uninhibited enjoyment of loving and faithful dogs in a wide range of dramatic situations' (Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, London, 1981, p. 94).

We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his assistance cataloguing this lot.

Saleroom notices

Please note that the sale in 1986 listed in the provenance, was at Sotheby's, London and not as stated in the catalogue.
Please also note that the larger scale depiction of Neptune was commissioned by W.E. Gosling (and not as stated in the catalogue).

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- 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings