STEEL ENGRAVING – “IN THE PASTURE” from the painting by Richard Ansdell, engraved by C Cousen, printed in 1883.  This engraving is in very good condition.  The engraving measures 9 ½” x 7 7/8”, and is matted to 12” x 16” for easy framing.

   Richard Ansdell has many claims to be held in grateful remembrance by his countrymen; his manner of grouping animals has formed and will form, as it were, a text-book for the use of young artists through many a year.  In some respects Ansdall’s work is complementary to Landseer’s; Landseer first, then Ansdell; where the one, we cannot say fails, but stops short, the other comes in; the one in a manner abstracts his animals from all surrounding objects, the other causes them to find a peculiar naturalness in the fitness of their surroundings.

    It is in a subject like “In The Pasture” that Ansdell’s powers have full play.  Such another we remember to have seen at a country house in Sussex, where a boy is represented with a pet hawk on his finger, and an equally friendly pet dog at his feet.  Instead of mere display of brute intelligence, it is in a warm sympathy between brutes out their human despots that the strength of the conception lies.  There, as here, the epithet which first rises to the lips is “striking,” by which we mean appreciable and pleasing; for there is something which arrests the attention in this meeting of the intelligent care and love of mankind with the instinctive, unerring gratitude of the lower part of creation.

    In order to achieve a really satisfactory grasp of this picture credit must be assigned in proper proportions to each part of the composition.  The child, friendly as pert, serves as an admirable foil for the expressions of the calves.  One animal is watching the other in the half timid, half inquiring manner we so often notice; and the clouded horizon artfully suggests that it is but a peep that is being bestowed on these interesting little animals.

  The calves themselves, country to their usual habits, are quite at home with their friendly visitors, whom there is no doubt they recognize as old acquaintances.  A more pleasing picture of this class we rarely see; the animals are excellently drawn, and are full of life.

    The engraver has used his tool well, and has succeeded in producing a really brilliant print.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE

Antique prints, engravings, and lithographs are printing processes, which use steel, copper, stone or wood blocks or plates to produce a picture on paper.

Most antique prints and engravings, which are seen on the internet today, are bookplates.  Because they are pages from a book, there are multiple copies in existence.  This does not, however, mean that they are "reproductions" that have been printed recently.  Because they were, at some point, part of books, some have been preserved in excellent condition, while others show signs of age, as yellow spots or darkness on the edge of the page from being handled.

Engravings, and lithographs are high quality pieces of art, as it took a highly trained artist many hours of work to produce one.  Although there may be multiple copies still in existence, the date of the item should be stated, thus giving the buyer an idea of its age.

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