Artist

(b. 1795, London, d. 1880, London)

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Details

English printmaker and writer, part of a family of artists. He was the eldest of the fourteen children of engraver John Landseer (c. 1769-1852). Seven of the children survived to adulthood and all became artists; his younger brothers were painters and later Royal Academicians Charles Landseer and Edwin Landseer. Like his siblings, Landseer was taught artistic techniques by his father. He then studied under painter Benjamin Robert Haydon alongside his brother Charles. He began etching aged 14, copying his precocious brother's drawings. Thomas continued to make etched copies of Edwin's works in later life. His soft-ground etchings complimented his brother's animal paintings, and sales of the popular prints (retailing for between 3 and 10 guineas) contributed to his brother's fame and fortune. He assisted his brother with giving art lessons to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Landseer became one of the most gifted and innovative engravers of his generation, being particularly adept in the use of textural etching. This type of rendering was wonderfully suited for reproducing the works of his brother Edwin's paintings. Landseer produced satirical etchings of monkeys in human clothing 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 also exhibited paintings at the British Institution and the Royal Academy. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1867 for his etchings. He was the only sibling to marry. His son George Landseer (c. 1834-1878) became a portrait and landscape painter. //

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Category	Artists
Artists by letter	L
Artist nationality	English