[ Sweetser / Landseer ]
Moses Foster Sweetser (1848 - 1897) was an American writer (primarily of travel and art-related books) and photographer.
This overview of the works of Sir Edwin Landseer was first published in 1879 (Boston: Houghton, Osgood), with several reprintings.
The first of Landseer's Newfoundland works to be mentioned is A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society:
"A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" is one of the most widely known of our artist's pictures, and has been reproduced many times, by all manner of processes. It was a portrait of a fine dog named Paul Pry, whose beauty had awakened Landseer's admiration, which was highly increased on seeing the faithful pet carrying a basket of very bright flowers in his teeth. He was a large specimen of the Newfoundland breed, and is portrayed reclining on the last stone of a sea-side quay, against which the light summer ripples break, lapsing upon the mooring-ring. He is in broad sunlight, with the shadow of his enormous black head falling upon his white flank, while he watches to seaward with strong and pathetic eyes, and marks a quick attention by the gentle lifting of his ears. The painting of the hide is admirable, and shows the rigid and the soft, the downy and the high-lighted, parts; the masses of hair as the dog's habitual motions had permitted them to grow; and the skillful foreshortening of the paws hanging over the quay's edge. This wonderful representation of the canine race, one of the most inimitable which art has ever produced, was painted for the trifling sum of fifty guineas. Mr. Thomas Landseer engraved it in the most superb manner.
The next mention of Newfoundlands is, I believe, an error, but in the interest of the historical record I'm including it here. Sweetser mentions Landseer's The Lion Dog of Malta, as follows:
"The Lion-Dog of Malta, the last of his Tribe" was painted in 1840, and shows the white and silky-haired little creature lying on a table, close to a huge and earnest-eyed Newfoundland dog, on whose nose he rests a tiny paw, while he looks through long and fringing hair with glittering eyes. On the front of the table are pencils, brushes, a porte-crayon, and other drawing instruments, and a bit of bread, at which a daring mouse is greedily nibbling. (73 - 74)
You can see this painting here at The Cultured Newf.
Passing mention is made of the painting of "Princess Mary of Cambridge, with the Newfoundland dog Nelson" (78), which you can see here at The Cultured Newf.
The last reference to a Newf painting by Sir Edwin is the mention, in a list of paintings and their owners, is "Newfoundland Dog and Terriers at a Stream, 1822." There is in fact only one terrier depicted in that painting, which you can see here at The Cultured Newf.