High Life

Publisher Louis Brall British

January 20, 1869

Not on view

Landseer, a favorite of Queen Victoria (whom he taught to etch) and the most celebrated animal painter of nineteenth-century Britain, made a special subject of dogs with human-seeming personalities. Such anthropomorphism, which Ruskin dubbed "the pathetic fallacy," found admiring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Here, a deerhound's haughty, dignified pose seems to suit its aristocratic setting, distinguished by a falconer's glove, a chalice and helmet, and a view onto a crenellated tower. High Life was once thought to depict Sir Walter Scott's dog at Abbotsford House, the author's neo-Gothic estate. In fact, the wholly imaginary scene was designed to contrast with its pendant, Low Life, which shows a terrier in a doorway beside a beer stein and pipe. The print is based on a painting of 1829 now at the Tate Gallery, London.

Artwork Details

Title: High Life
Engraver: Alfred Lucas (British, active 1841–86)
Artist: After Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (British, London 1802–1873 London)
Publisher: Louis Brall (London)
Date: January 20, 1869
Medium: Mixed method engraving
Dimensions: Plate: 23 15/16 × 16 7/8 in. (60.8 × 42.8 cm)
Sheet: 28 1/16 × 20 3/8 in. (71.3 × 51.7 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
Object Number: 47.30.15
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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