"The Intruder" steel engraving by H.G. Beckwith after the painting by Edwin Henry Landseer [engraved for 'The Art Jurnal', Volume X; 1848]; signed in plate "Edwin Landseer R.A. Painter" and "H. G. Beckwith Engraver"

High quality thick woven cream-color paper, design 8.7/8" x 7" [225mm x 176mm], the entire plate 12.1/2" x 9.1/2" [315mm x 238mm]; very good condition.

The image shows a dog and a cat in a barn. The dog has chased a cat onto a windowsill. In the foreground is a trap with a rat caught in it. There is a view through the barn door of a landscape. This is one of four engravings that Henry Beckwith made after paintings by Landseer for The Art Journal, the most important Victorian journal on art published by George Virtue, London.

Henry Beckwith, (active c.1830s-1880s), British engraver, also worked in watercolor. Brief period in New York [1842] where he worked with Alfred Jones for about a year. Brother-in-law of Francis Topham. Beckwith's name is linked to the American Bank Note Company (ABNC), the Continental Bank Note Company, and the Homer Lee Bank Note Company as well. While the vast bulk of his work consists of banknotes, he did engrave a stamp for the ABNC: the 2c of the 1865 Newfoundland definitive set, depicting an Atlantic cod.

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Landseer was born in London, the son of the engraver John Landseer. He studied under several artists, including his father, and the history painter Benjamin Robert Haydon, who encouraged the young Landseer to perform dissections in order to fully understand animal musculature and skeletal structure. Landseer's life was entwined with the Royal Academy. At the age of just 13, in 1815, he exhibited works there. He was elected an Associate at the age of 24, and an Academician five years later in 1831.

Landseer's popularity in Victorian Britain was considerable, and his reputation as an animal painter was unrivalled. Much of his fame and his income was generated by the publication of engravings of his work, many of them by his brother Thomas. His appeal crossed class boundaries: reproductions of his works were common in middle-class homes, while he was also popular with the aristocracy. He was knighted in 1850, and although elected to be president of the Royal Academy in 1866 he declined the invitation. Queen Victoria commissioned numerous pictures from him. Initially asked to paint various royal pets, Landseer then moved on to portraits of ghillies and gamekeepers. Then, in the year before her marriage, the queen commissioned a portrait of herself, as a present for Prince Albert. He taught both Victoria and Albert to etch, and made portraits of Victoria's children as babies, usually in the company of a dog. He also made two portraits of Victoria and Albert dressed for costume balls, at which he was a guest himself. One of his last paintings was a life-size equestrian portrait of the Queen, shown at the Royal Academy in 1873, made from earlier sketches.

Landseer's works can be found in Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kenwood House and the Wallace Collection in London.

US: Priority (c.2-4 days) --------- $20.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) --- $40.50
World: Priority (c 2-8 weeks) ---- $58.50