| A Random Shot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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]
