Taking the Deer : the Duke of Atholl with Foresters

This is a study for ‘The Death of a Deer in Glentilt’, one of Landseer’s earliest grand deer-hunting pictures set in the Scottish Highlands. The artist made several sketches for the finished painting while staying with the Duke of Atholl in 1824, 1825 and 1826; but he only completed it in 1829. The finished work is now in a private collection. The influence of Rubens’s hunting scenes on Landseer’s composition is evident.