Queen Victoria's Spaniel ‘Tilco’
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer RA (London 1802 - London 1873)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1838
Materials
Oil on board
Measurements
349 x 276 mm (13 3/4 x 10 7/8 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515453
Summary
Oil painting on board, Queen Victoria's Spaniel, 'Tilco', (d.1850) by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (London 1802 - London 1873), 1838. A black-and-tan curly coated spaniel, turned to the right, with a quill pen in its mouth, between its paws an opened letter with a red seal. Tilco was a given as a gift to Queen Victoria in 1838 by the Earl of Albermarle. The dog was residing in the Home Park Kennel in 1844 and died in 1850. Sketched from life at Buckingham Palace, 1838, as a preparatory study for 'Islay, Tilco, a Macaw and two Love Birds', 1839 (Royal Collection, RCIN 403194). Label on frame 'Dash - Queen Victoria's Favourite Spaniel'.
Provenance
Date of acquisition by Lord Fairhaven unknown; bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Verso: Inscribed on label on back: Dash - Queen Victoria’s favourite spaniel. Sketched from life at Buckingham Palace (1838) Recto: Inscribed on gilt tablet affixed to bottom of frame: Sir Edwin Landseer P.R.A / 1802-1873.
Makers and roles
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer RA (London 1802 - London 1873), publisher
Exhibition history
Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney, The Wallace Collection, London, 2023
References
Royal Academy, 1840, No.139 Art Union, 1840: The Art Union of London, 1840, p.74 Blackwood's 1840: Blackwood's Magazine, vol. 48, 1840, pp. 378-79 Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1855, No.855 Art Journal, 1855, p.281 Dafforne 1873 James Dafforne, Pictures by Sir Edwin Landseer, Royal Academician. With Descriptions, and a Biographical Sketch of the Painter, London, 1873, p.20 The Works of the late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. Royal Academy, London, 1874, No.263 Mann, 1874-77: Cabel Scholefield Mann, Interleaved copy of London, 1874, with extensive annotations and photographic reproductions of most known Landseer prints, 4 vols, 1874-77, Victoria and Albert Museum Eng.86BB 19., vol. I, p.84, vol. 4, p.137 Graves 1876 Algernon Graves, Catalogue of the Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., London 1876, p.21, no. 263 Bell 1876 Doyne Bell, Catalogue of the Paintings, Sculpture and other Works of Art at Osborne, 1876, p.10 Manson, 1902: James A. Manson, Landseer - The Makers of British Art, 1902, p.103: Thackeray, 1906: William Makepeace Thackeray, Essays, Reviews, London, 1906, p.142 Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 1966: Animals in Art, Exhibition, Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, 1966, No.53: [in notes mentions Fairhaven sketch, p.148]: Ormond, 1981: Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, Thames & Hudson,1981, p.148 & fig. 103. Millar 1992: Sir Oliver Millar, The Victorian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge, 1992, p.153: Anglesey Abbey, 2006 [The National Trust] 2002, revised 2006, p.8: Bray 2021: Xavier Bray, Faithful and Fearless: Portraits of Dogs, exh.cat., The Wallace Collection, London, 2021, no.13, pp. 68-9 (reproduced)
