John Landseer
This half-length portrait bust of John Landseer (1769-1852) was completed in 1882, long after the sitter’s death but shows Landseer wearing clothes of the correct period.
John Landseer was an English landscape engraver who worked for the publisher Thomas Macklin. His largest series of engravings was Twenty Views of the South of Scotland, after James Moore. He was elected an Associate Engraver of the Royal Academy. For a period, he also became interested in archaeology and published two books on Babylonian antiquities, before returning to engraving. In 1826 he was appointed Engraver to the King. He had fourteen children, four of whom became successful artists, including the animal painter, Edwin, later Sir Edwin Landseer (one of whose art works Flood in the Highlands you see in Gallery I). The bust was gifted to Sir Merton Russell-Cotes in 1919 by Mr E. Mackenzie, the great grandson of John Landseer.
John Adams-Acton was born in Acton, London, and studied under Timothy Butler (1806-1885) before enrolling at the Royal Academy, where he was awarded a gold medal and a travelling scholarship to study in Rome under John Gibson for 10 years. In 1851, he began exhibiting at the Royal Academy under his original name John Adams but adopted the hyphenated name in 1868 to distinguish himself from other artists of the same name. By the time he returned to Britain he had established a reputation as a talented portrait sculptor. He exhibited from the 1850s at the Royal Academy showing a succession of busts, portrait medallions and full statues of eminent Victorians.
