A Random Shot
| A Random Shot | |
|---|---|
_-_A_Random_Shot_-_79.1901_-_Bury_Art_Museum.jpg) | |
| Artist | Edwin Landseer |
| Year | 1848 |
| Type | Oil on canvas, genre painting |
| Dimensions | 121 cm × 182 cm (48 in × 72 in) |
| Location | Bury Art Museum, Greater Manchester |
A Random Shot is an 1848 oil painting by the British artist Edwin Landseer. It depicts a snow-covered mountaintop in the Highlands of Scotland, where a deer struck by a random shot of a hunter has managed to reach before dying. A fawn nuzzles against her forlornly.
Deers as victims on man's aggression had been a theme running through Landscapes work during the decade. In this case it shows the violation of the unwritten rule that a female deer with young should never be shot.[1] The artist drew inspiration for the painting from a passage in Walter Scott's The Lord of the Isles. Landseer added the snow at a late stage in order to heighten the emotion of the scene.[2]
The work may have been commissioned by Prince Albert, but ended up in the collection of Thomas Wrigley.[3] the picture was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1848 at the National Gallery in London, where it attracted a great deal of attention. [4] Today the painting is in the Bury Art Museum in Greater Manchester, having been acquired in 1897. [5]
References
[edit]- ^ Ormond pp. 172–73
- ^ Donald p.303
- ^ Ormond p.173
- ^ "1848 Sculpture in the Basement". chronicle250.com. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
- ^ "A Random Shot". Art UK. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
Bibliography
[edit]- Donald, Diana. Picturing Animals in Britain, 1750–1850. Yale University Press, 2007.
- Ormond, Richard. Sir Edwin Landseer. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1981.
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