David Barnett and the Landseer Lion

This is the story of two matched sketches, drawn by one of England's greatest artists, and of two art-loving friends in late 19th century Brooklyn, New York. The friends were a man named Henry Beam and my 3rd great uncle*, an English-born lawyer named David Barnett.

Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-73) was one of the most famous and highly regarded artists in Victorian England. He is especially famous for his paintings and sketches of animals; in addition, he sculpted the bronze lions that surround Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. Queen Victoria commissioned him to paint her and her family - and their pets - at Windsor Castle in the 1840s. The Landseer dog, a kind of Newfoundland, was named in his honor.

David Barnett was English like Landseer, but had little in common with him otherwise. He was a self-made man, born in poverty in London's East End, who became, through hard work and talent, a highly regarded, socially and politically prominent Brooklyn lawyer. He was also, from what I have read about him, a kind and amiable man.

Barnett's friend Henry Beam, the Deputy Commissioner for the Brooklyn Bridge told the story to the Brooklyn Eagle just after David's death at age 60 in 1899.

Many years before, Beam had lent money to an English friend; the friend, in return, gave Beam two Landseer crayon sketches entitled "The Lion" and "The Lioness." The friend was killed in the Civil War, so the sketches remained with Beam. "They are spelndid specimens of Landseer's skill," Beam said, "and I prized them more highly that they were the last mementos of my friend, who was killed after rising to the rank of a captain."

A few years later (in 1871, according to my research) David Barnett had been Beam's counsel for "a real estate difficulty," but refused payment for his services. He said that Beam had done him a lot of favors, and this would make things even. Beam did not know what to do; he even asked the court what a proper fee would be; they said $250 would be about right. But Barnett would not even submit a bill to his old friend.

Then, on a visit to Beam's house, David saw the Landseer sketches and "fell in love" with them. Beam did not know what to do, since he "thought more of those pictures than anything I had then. I would not have given them to any one else in the world." Beam pondered the matter for awhile, then finally said to his friend:

Say, Dave, I would not give one of those pictures to my father, but hang it, I owe you one and I want you to have it....You take the lion and keep it. If you die before I do, bequeath it to me. If I die, you get the lioness. Dave shook hands right there. Well, Dave went first, so the old lion will come back to his dame now, and Dave has kept his word. No money could buy those pictures now.

I wonder where the lion and lioness are now, and whether they are still together. I hope that they are.

[The image is of a Landseer sketch of a lion which, if it is not the exact picture in the story, is probably very close to it. It comes from Academy for the Love of Learning. I could not find a lioness sketch, though. The other Landseers - the bronze lion and the painting Windsor Castle in Modern Times - are both from Wikipedia.]

*That is to say, the brother of my great great grandmother, Mary Ann (Barnett) Hicks.

Additional Sources

Landseer Gallery at Museum Syndicate
Landseer Online
"Beam Gets Back His Picture," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 29, 1899, p. 14.
"Got Back His Picture," New York Times, September 2, 1899, p. 7.