A Bellowing Stag

c. 1839

Commissions from Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria commissions numerous pictures from him: first portraits of royal pets, then of ghillies and gamekeepers, and in the year before her marriage a portrait of herself. He teaches both Victoria and Albert to etch, makes portraits of their children as babies (usually with a dog) and two portraits of the couple dressed for costume balls, at which he was a guest himself.

1840

A severe nervous illness

In 1840, in his late thirties, he suffers a severe nervous illness, now believed to have been a substantial nervous breakdown; for the rest of his life he is troubled by recurring bouts of melancholy, hypochondria and depression, often aggravated by alcohol and drug use, yet he never stops drawing.

1850

Knighted

Landseer is knighted by the Queen.