| Method | Etching |
| Artist | Thomas Landseer |
| Published | Thos. Landseer [c.1830] |
| Dimensions | Image 233 x 176 mm, Sheet 258 x 195 mm |
| Notes |
A rough cartoon, probably intended as one in a series of illustrations for an unknown publication. In the scene, the elderly bearded protagonist, clad in a high-collared robe, cowers with eyes downcast before a spectre which rises from the sarcophagus of the title. The spectre, also bearded and wearing a head-dress and bandages suggesting that he is an Egyptian mummy, holds aloft an elaborately clasped book. Flanking him are two large, hairy, naked beings, which crouch malevolently on either side of the sarcophagus. Both are reminiscent in style and attitude to characters in the works of William Blake. The rest of the scene is decorated with various objects of vertu, including an Egyptian death-mask and the skeleton of a large elephant or mammoth, which appear, along with the protagonist, in another cartoon in the same series entitled 'The Studio.' Thomas Landseer (1793/94 - 1880) was a draughtsman, engraver and painter. He is best-known for his engravings and etchings of paintings by his youngest brother Edwin Landseer. Born in London, the eldest of fourteen children, Landseer was taught artistic techniques by his father, the engraver John Landseer. He then studied under the painter Benjamin Robert Haydon. He began etching aged fourteen, copying his brother's drawings; and continued to make etched copies of Edwin's works in later life. He produced satirical etchings for Monkeyana, or, Men in Miniature (1827), and dedicated his Characteristic Sketches of Animals (1832) to the Zoological Society. He also produced illustrations for Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Devil's Walk (1831). He exhibited paintings at the British Institution and the Royal Academy, and was elected an Associate of the latter in 1867. Condition: Trimmed within the plate and publication line. Repaired tear top centre into image. |
| Framing | unmounted |
| Price | £120.00 |
| Stock ID | 36181 |