Sir Edwin Landseer RA, Head of a horse with a nosebag

Head of a horse with a nosebag, ca.1810-12

Sir Edwin Landseer RA (1802 - 1873)

RA Collection: Art

The young Edwin Landseer produced a prodigious number of studies from horses. Most of these early drawings depict the working carthorses or farm horses he would have seen around him, wearing their reins and nosebags. Landseer could have drawn horses like these in London but he also visited the Essex countryside where Mr W.W. Simpson, a friend and patron of the Landseer family, owned a farm.

In 1814, Landseer was awarded the silver 'Isis' medal by the Society of Arts for a drawing of a ‘Hunting Horse’. However, despite his early enthusiasm for drawing horses, dogs were to become the main focus of his adult work. There are a few notable exceptions, however, including 'The Arab Tent' (1866) and ‘Taming the Shrew’ (1861).

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Object details

Title
Head of a horse with a nosebag
Artist/designer
Sir Edwin Landseer RA (1802 - 1873)
Date
ca.1810-12
Object type
Drawing
Medium
Pencil on cream wove paper
Dimensions

116 mm x 62 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
02/16
Acquisition
Given by Sir John Aird 1883
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