Object Type
Oil paintings with scenes of children became popular with collectors such as John Sheepshanks and the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, as well as appealing to the sentimental tastes of a very wide section of the Victorian public.
Subjects Depicted
The success of this painting was remarkable and led to a number of commissions for child portraits. It was thought that the subject of this painting was a boy who was brought to the studio but refused to remain where he was put. His mother, exasperated, sent him to stand `in the corner' and Landseer decided to paint him as he stood. An alternative possibility is that it is a portrait of Landseer's own daughter, the second child of a liaison with Georgiana, Duchess of Bedford. It is hard to tell because of the custom of dressing young children of both sexes alike, until the boys were old enough to wear breeches.
People
Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) was a child prodigy, exhibiting some drawings at the Royal Academy when he was only 13. Queen Victoria collected his paintings as did John Sheepshanks. The two biggest collections of his work are in the Royal Collection and here in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Physical description
Oil on millboard depicting a full-length portrait of a child in the corner of a room, beside a broken frame resembling a blackboard in pieces on the floor.
Place of Origin
Great Britain, UK (painted)
Date
1834 (painted)
Artist/maker
Edwin Landseer, born 1802 - died 1873 (painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Oil on millboard
Dimensions
Height: 38.1 cm, Width: 27.9 cm, Depth: 5.5 cm, Height: 53 cm framed, Width: 42.5 cm framed
Object history note
Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857. By Sir Edwin Henry Landseer RA (born in London, 1802, died there in 1873)
Exhibited at the British Institution 1834
Descriptive line
Oil painting entitled 'A Naughty Child' by Edwin Henry Landseer. Great Britain, 1834.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, p. 147
The following is the full text of the entry:
"LANDSEER, Sir Edwin Henry, RA (1803-1873)
Born London 7 March 1803, fourth of seven children of the engraver John Landseer. Studied with BR Haydon, entered the RA Schools 1817 (at the age of 14); won annual prizes of the Royal Society of Arts 1813-17. A precocious and prodigious talent, as both painter and draughtsman, he exhibited - in a long and distinguished career - 179 works at the RA between 1815 and 1873, 94 at the BI 1818-65, and four at the SBA 1826-32.
Subjects included portraits, but predominantly dealt with animal and human genre, often based in Scotland. Elected ARA 1826 (at the earliest permitted age), RA 1831. Received the patronage of the Russell family, and - most importantly- that of the Royal family, to whom he was Drawing Master, beginning in 1836 with the Duchess of Kent (Queen Victoria's mother); most significantly, he represented in visual form the Queen and Prince Albert's love for the life and landscape of the Scottish Highlands. Together with George IV's celebrated visit to Edinburgh 1822, and the great popularity of Sir Waiter Scott's Waverley novels, Landseer's contribution to the place of Scotland in European culture in the 19th century was considerable. The artist's own popularity was increased by the great number of reproductive prints after his works (Graves alone lists 434 by 126 engravers, see Lit below); his 'Monarch of the Glen' (exh, RA 1851), commissioned by the House of Lords but the cost refused by the House of Commons, was eventually bought by Sir Thomas Dewar and reproduced on his family firm's whisky bottle labels. Also significant was his anthropomorphic treatment of animals, particularly dogs; the Art Journal obituarist stressed that 'his dogs are not mere portraits only, they are thinking, almost rational, creatures, wanting only the gift of speech to hold converse with us'. Knighted 1850; offered PRA 1865, but refused, almost certainly because of his poor physical and mental health. Died London 1 October 1873; buried in St Paul's Cathedral. His studio sale was at Christie's 8-15 May 1874; a commemorative exhibition was held at the RA 1874/5. After the Royal Collection, the V&A possesses the largest holding of Landseer's works; there are a great many drawings and prints as well as the oils catalogued below, principally from the Sheepshanks Gift, one of the artist's most important patrons.
LIT: F G Stephens The Early Works of Sir Edwin Landseer RA 1869; J Dafforne Pictures by Sir Edwin Landseer ... 1873; Art Journal 1873, p326 (obit); interleaved copy of 1874 RA exhibition catalogue, annotated by C S Mann, with photographs of prints after Landseer, 1874-7,4 vols (National Art Library, V&A); A Graves Catalogue of the Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer 1876; C Monkhouse entry in DNB; C Lennie Landseer: Victorian Paragon 1976; R Ormond Sir Edwin Landseer Philadelphia Museum of Art and Tate Gallery exhibition catalogue 1981 (With full bibliography).
A Naughty Child
FA98 Neg 36112
Millboard, 38.1 X 27.9 cm (15 X 11 ins)
Sheepshanks Gift 1857
Exhibited at the BI in 1834. The text accompanying the 1847 engraving in the Art Journal, described the work as 'one of the most agreeable and popular of Mr. Edwin Landseer'; it continued:
It may not be amiss to state that this picture was the issue of an accident. A lady having brought her son to sit to Mr. Landseer, the boy became unruly, sulked, and refused to remain in the position in which he had been placed. His mother having vainly exerted her authority, and finding him still obstinate, forced him into 'the corner' as a punishment. Here his resolute air and sturdy expression struck the artist - who quietly pictured his expression as it is seen here.
Manson states that the sitter was a girl, Lady Rachel Russell (1826-98), whom, it is alleged by Lennie, was Landseer's own daughter, the second child of his liaison with Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, and Lennie cites the support of the present duke for this view. The resemblance of the present sitter to Landseer's 1831 portrait of Lady Rachel Russell as 'Little Red Riding Hood' also supports this suggestion; however, the present work shows a child of about five years, while in 1834 Lady Rachel would have been eight.
The success of the work was remarkable, and led to a number of commissions for child portraits, although he had already painted several for the Russell family.
EXH: BI 1834 (4)
ENGR: W Finden 1843 (dated by Graves 1841), as 'The Naughty Boy' (see Art Union 1834, p226, repr 1847, facing p88);, S G Hunt 1890, as pl 13 of Works of Sir Edwin Landseer RA (second series)
LIT: Art Union 1847, p88; Dafforne p18 (repr as frontispiece); Mann I, p136; Graves no 201; F G Stephens Sir Edwin Landseer 1881, pp70-1; J Manson Sir Edwin Landseer 1902, p82; Lennie p58
Ronald Parkinson"
Labels and date
British Galleries:
The success of this painting was remarkable and led to a number of commissions to Edwin Landseer for child portraits. It was thought that the little boy was brought to the studio but misbehaved. His mother, exasperated, sent him to stand 'in the corner' and Landseer decided to paint him as he stood. [27/03/2003]
Materials
Oil paint; Millboard
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Children
Categories
Children & Childhood; Paintings; Anthropomorphism
Collection code
PDP
