Black crayon, charcoal and coloured chalk 35 x 48cm (13 3/4 x 19 3/8in) Provenance: Lord William Compton, Lord Northampton The present lot is traditionally known as 'Waiting for Loo'. Loo was Lady Louisa Ashburton, 2nd wife of the 2nd Lord Ashburton. Landseer was a close friend of hers and stayed with them at Lochluichart Lodge, Ross-shire. There is a collage on the dining room window there which Landseer did while waiting for lunch. It appears she was always keeping people waiting. Indeed Loo was much more than a friend, Landseer was passionately in love with her and though much older might have married her if he had not been for her sudden engagement to the retiring yet immensely wealthy Lord Ashburton in 1858. Landseer's feelings about Louisa are vividly conveyed in a series of letters he wrote in 1858, "I really do try to forget and forgive-they say a certain dreadful place is paved with good intentions so am I! the book I promised to close -is not locked! " Literature: Richard Ormond, 1981 Philadelphia/Tate catalogue intro, pp. 18-19. We are grateful to Richard Ormond CBE in his assistance in cataloguing this lot