About This Artwork

Edwin Henry Landseer
British, 1802-1873

Head of a Roebuck and Two Ptarmigan, c. 1830

Oil on panel
8 7/8 x 12 in. (22.5 x 30.4 cm)
Restricted gift of the Auxiliary Board, 1988.42

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

London, British Institution, 1830, cat. 247, as Ptarmigan and Roebuck.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A., Winter Exhibition, 1874, cat. 361, as Roe’s Head and Ptarmigan.

London, Royal Academy of Arts, Paintings and Drawings by Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A. 1803–1873, March 10–May 14, 1961, cat. 57 (ill.).

New York, Wheelock Whitney & Co., Nineteenth Century European Paintings, October 27–November 25, 1987, cat. 10 (ill.).

Publication History

Algernon Graves, Catalogue of the Works of the Late Sir Edwin Landseer, R. A. (London: Henry Graves and Co., 1874), p. 14, as Ptarmigan and Roebuck.

Richard Ormond, Sir Edwin Landseer, exh. cat. (Philadelphia Museum of Art/Tate Gallery, 1981), p. 79.

Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report 1987–88 (Chicago, 1988), pp. 27, 55 (ill.), 65.

Ownership History

William Wells (died 1847), Redleaf, Kent; by descent to his nephew, also called William Wells, M. P. (died 1889), Holme Wood, Peterborough; sold, Christie's, London, May 10, 1890, lot 30, as Roe’s Head and Ptarmigan, to Martin Colnaghi. Major Randolph Charles Rufus Molyneux Clarke (died 1955); sold, Christie's, London, May 2, 1952, lot 6, to Toyer as agent for Thomas Agnew and Sons, London [acc. to annotated sale cat. and Agnew letter dated September 3, 1988, in curatorial file]; sold by Agnew's to Henry P. McIlhenny (died 1986), Philadelphia, 1952 [see Agnew letter cited above]; sold by McIlhenny estate, Christie's, New York, May 20, 1987, lot 147. Wheelock Whitney & Co., New York, by October 1987; sold to the Art Institute, 1988.