War

War, painted in 1845 and held at the Walker Art Gallery, is one of a pair with Peace, using animal subjects to allegorize human conflict. By the 1840s Landseer frequently employed animals as vehicles for broader moral and philosophical commentary, elevating animal painting to the status of history painting in the academic hierarchy. Edwin Henry Landseer, the most celebrated animal painter in Victorian Britain, combined exceptional technical mastery of animal anatomy with the capacity to invest his subjects with human emotional significance. His training under Benjamin West at the Royal Academy gave him the academic foundations; his lifelong observation of animals in the wild (particularly in Scotland) and in captivity gave him the specific knowledge that made his animals convincing. Queen Victoria's patronage and the wide dissemination of his work through engravings made his images of dogs, deer, and Highland scenes among the most reproduced images of the Victorian era, shaping the culture's visual understanding of the animal world and the British landscape.

The allegory is conveyed through the animals’ expressions and the surrounding scene of destruction. Dark, turbulent tones and dramatic lighting create an atmosphere of violence and suffering appropriate to the subject.