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| Under attack - Landseer's stricken eagle |
A LITTE-seen bird study by the great English artist and sculptor Sir Edwin Landseer is set to go under the hammer at an art auction next week.
Landseer (1802-1873) is best-known for the four lion statues in London's Trafalgar Square and for his depiction of a stag, The Monarch of The Glen, which hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
But it is his framed chalk-on-grey-paper painting of a wounded White-tailed Eagle being mobbed by Ravens that is due to be sold by Christie's in London on Wednesday (December 3).
Despite his acclaim, Landseer led a troubled life, afflicted by over-use of alcohol and drugs, and his family had him declared insane the year before he died.
The pre-sale estimate is that his eagle painting will fetch between £4,000 and £6,000.
At the same sale, a depiction of Ptarmigan in breeding plumage by the German artist, Joseph Wolf (1820-1899), is expected to achieve a hammer price of between £5,000 and £8,000.
Wolf was greatly admired for his wildlife paintings by Landseer who once said that he "must have been a bird before he was a man".
But Christie's have even higher hopes for a painting by William Webbe (1830-1911) of a feral pigeon with nestlings, the guide price being £20,000 to £30,000.
More information from Christie's at 0207 8399060.
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| Ptarmigan in summer plumage |
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| Feral pigeon with young |
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