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Lot Essay
This charming family portrait is a rare collaboration between Charles Landseer and his younger brother Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, the most celebrated animal painter of the Victorian period. One of the few group portraits exhibited by Charles Landseer at the Royal Academy between 1828-1879, the exhibition description for the present work places particular emphasis on the fact that the magnificent dog in the centre of the picture was painted by ‘E. Landseer, R.A.’ Although both brothers were trained in their formative years by their father, the engraver John Landseer, and later Benjamin Robert Haydon, their chosen subject matter soon diverged with Charles specialising in historical subject matter and genre scenes, whilst Edwin became the painter of such seminal animal images as Monarch of the Glen, c. 1851 (National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh).
Edwin Landseer’s empathy with animals, and his skill at capturing every nuance of their interaction with humans is clearly demonstrated in the beautiful, gentle St Bernard that dominates this composition. Practically larger than the three children who surround it, the dog nevertheless seems happy to submit to the caresses and attention of his three small owners, whilst loyally watching over them. A celebration of the freedom of children, the picture nevertheless presages the responsibilities of the adult life that is to come: the eldest child, already in miniature adult costume, gently and firmly holds his youngest sibling in place, whilst the middle child carefully holds the lead of the dog and watches over the proceedings.
These three young sitters are the eldest of the five children of the Rev. Edward Coleridge (1800-1873), then Assistant Master at Eton, and Mary Keate (d. 1859), one of the six daughters of Eton’s diminutive but formidable Headmaster John Keate (1778-1852). Edward Coleridge came from a long line of clergymen and teachers originating from Ottery St Mary, Devon, and his uncle was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), the family’s sole rebel. The picture hung in the family’s seat, The Chanter’s House at Ottery St Mary, for over a hundred years until its sale alongside many other celebrated objects from the Coleridge Collection in 2006.
Edwin Landseer’s empathy with animals, and his skill at capturing every nuance of their interaction with humans is clearly demonstrated in the beautiful, gentle St Bernard that dominates this composition. Practically larger than the three children who surround it, the dog nevertheless seems happy to submit to the caresses and attention of his three small owners, whilst loyally watching over them. A celebration of the freedom of children, the picture nevertheless presages the responsibilities of the adult life that is to come: the eldest child, already in miniature adult costume, gently and firmly holds his youngest sibling in place, whilst the middle child carefully holds the lead of the dog and watches over the proceedings.
These three young sitters are the eldest of the five children of the Rev. Edward Coleridge (1800-1873), then Assistant Master at Eton, and Mary Keate (d. 1859), one of the six daughters of Eton’s diminutive but formidable Headmaster John Keate (1778-1852). Edward Coleridge came from a long line of clergymen and teachers originating from Ottery St Mary, Devon, and his uncle was the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), the family’s sole rebel. The picture hung in the family’s seat, The Chanter’s House at Ottery St Mary, for over a hundred years until its sale alongside many other celebrated objects from the Coleridge Collection in 2006.