ABSTRACT
Landseer's early work shows deft draftsmanship and concern with details, but his style changed in 1824 after a trip to the Scottish Highlands. Here he undertook the first of many hunting scenes, Taking a Buck (1825), which was done on a larger scale and in a looser manner. Other pictures of deer followed, among the most famous being The Monarch of the Glen (1851), Stag at Bay (1846), and The Challenger (1844). Each captures the energy of the subject and suggests the potential violence of nature, showing a feeling for the sublime in terrible scenes. His treatment of the elemental aspects of the natural world links him with the harsher European romanticism of Gasper David Friedrich and Gericault. Landseer's images of great stags that defiantly face down their enemies against backdrops of misty crags or primeval lakes convey a moral meaning that is not deflected by sentimentality. Though the noble beasts show grace under pressure, nature is nevertheless "red in tooth and claw."
