Study of a rock and a tree

A precocious talent, Landseer had first exhibited at the Royal Academy at the age of thirteen. By the time he was twenty, he had already earned a loyal and prestigious host of patrons, including the Duke of Bedford, whose young wife Georgiana was the sister of the Duke of Gordon. By the late 1820s the vogue for highland sports was reaching its zenith, and Landseer, who had initially visited Scotland to make studies of stags, had become a keen sportsman himself. Landseer first visited the Scottish highlands in 1824, as a twenty-two-year-old guest of the Duke of Atholl.

During his early visits to Scotland in the 1820s and early 1830s Landseer painted a large number of oil sketches, such as the present work, that record his passion for the Highland scenery. They were clearly painted outdoors and they record the fleeting effects of nature with all the immediacy of something seen and experienced at the moment. Landseer avoided the popular sights, painting in remote areas of the Highlands far from tourist trails. With one exception he never exhibited his landscapes and they are not mentioned in contemporary literature. He seems to have painted them entirely for his own pleasure and they were unknown until his estate sale in 1874.

The attribution to Sir Edwin Landseer RA has been confirmed by Richard Ormond (private communication, 21 November 2013).