EDWIN LANDSEER is beyond all comparison the best animal painter of the age, or indeed of any past age. Nor is he excellent in this department alone, his treatment of the human figure is almost equally masterly; for whether his subject be the rude and weather-beaten shepherd of the bleak Scottish highlands, or the tender and delicate offspring of the rich and courtly, his delineations are truthful and characteristic. His animals have less violence of motion, and terrible energy than those of Rubens or Snyder, but they are more true to nature. The heads of Rubens' lions are painted on the principle of a resemblance to human features, just as it was Gilbert Stuart's practice in portraiture, to seek in the leading traits of his setters, a resemblance to some one of the lower animals: thus, while painting Washington, he kept in his mind the idea of a lion, and in that of John Adams, the owl, and so on. But Landseer aims only at producing the truest and most vivid representation of the object before him, and so complete is his triumph, that no historical painter has succeeded better in that highest and most difficult thing in art-expression,-than has the subject of our present notice, with only dogs and horses for his materials. What pictures of the "human form divine" can be found more perfect in expression than the "High Life" and "Low Life" of this artist? known to the American public by two fine lithographic prints. The "Too Hot," engraved for our present number, is well deserving of the poetical panegyric that accompanies it.

Landseer's pictures are free and spirited in composition, rich in color, and forcible in effect. His conception of a subject is as striking as his execution is vigorous and brilliant, and no one surpasses him in depicting the surface of objects; hence the unrivalled beauty of the still-life portions of his pictures. It is not improbable that the power of painting well, depends in a measure upon the peculiar construction of the visual organ. The pencil of one artist is guided by the inward eye of the mind, that of another by the outward physical sense, and, as with the larger proportion of mankind, the charms of execution will ever exercise the greater influence, the works of E. Landseer cannot cease to be popular, while with the same class the sublime compositions of such men as Blake or Fuseli are regarded with indifference.

Landseer's pictures possess the property of captivating the spectator at first sight, and the spell is equally on the learned and unlearned in art. This results mainly from his power over what is technically termed chiaro-scuro, or the general management of the light and shadow as a whole, and the subject chosen for our present number is one of his happiest efforts in this particular that we can remember. We here see carried out the principle of large portions of the objects melting into the background and shadows, ‚—an extension of form, by the dark side of an object being carried out by a still darker shadow, and in the light masses by light in a similar manner. The effect is wisely conducted upon the winning and losing scheme, in which the prominent points maintain their superiority by the other parts being sacrificed to their advantage. It is especially in the management of this department of painting that the English school excels, and it is to the influence and example of Sir Joshua Reynolds that this distinguishing peculiarity is to be attributed. When writing against insipidity, he says:

"I am no enemy to dark shadows. The general deficiency to be observed in the painters of the last age, is feebleness of effect; they seem to have been too much afraid of that midnight obscurity of parts, which alone gives the force of nature, and without which a picture is apt to be wholly wanting in strength and solidity."

It must be confessed, however, that Landseer cannot be always admired for concentration of effect, nor is it surprising that, with his extraordinary facilty in depicting the various objects in nature, he should go on multiplying the examples of his skill until his picture is too crowded. "Bolton Abbey in the olden time," familiarly known to the public by the fine mezzotinto engraving of it by Cousens, is an example of the want of repose to which we allude; every part taken separately is perfect, but the work as a whole would undoubtedly be improved by the omission of the girl with the fish, and the straw bonnet on the pavement, leaving an equal amount of empty surface in the space they occupy.

Edwin Landseer was, like Lawrence, remarkable for precocity of talent. The fine portrait of "the old lion Nero," was done by him when only twelve years of age.