The Monarch of the Glen (painting)

Last updated

The Monarch of the Glen
The Monarch of the Glen, Edwin Landseer, 1851.png
Artist Sir Edwin Landseer
Year1851
MediumOil-on-canvas
Dimensions163.8 cm× 168.9 cm(64.5 in× 66.5 in)
Location Scottish National Gallery [1] , Edinburgh

The Monarch of the Glen is an oil-on-canvas painting of a red deer stag completed in 1851 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer. It was commissioned as part of a series of three panels to hang in the Palace of Westminster, in London. As one of the most popular paintings throughout the 19th century, it sold widely in reproductions in steel engraving, and was finally bought by companies to use in advertising. The painting had become something of a cliché by the mid-20th century, as "the ultimate biscuit tin image of Scotland: a bulky stag set against the violet hills and watery skies of an isolated wilderness", according to the Sunday Herald . [2]

Contents

In 2017 the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh launched a successful campaign to buy the painting for £4 million, finally achieving the acquisition. The painting is now part of the collection, and is on display at the Scottish National Gallery in Room 12. [3]

History

Landseer was a member of the Royal Academy, a favourite of Queen Victoria, and had become famous for his paintings and drawings of animals. His later works include the sculptures of the lions at the foot of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. From the 1840s, he produced a series of intricately observed studies of stags based on those he had seen on the trips he had been making to the Scottish Highlands since 1824. In 1850, Landseer received a national commission to paint three subjects connected with the chase for the Refreshment Rooms of the House of Lords, for which he produced Monarch of the Glen and two other paintings. Once they were completed the House of Commons refused to grant the £150 promised for the commission (equivalent to £17,065in 2021), and, as a result, the paintings were sold to private collectors. It has been claimed that the landscape setting shows Glen Affric. [4]

The Monarch of the Glen in the Scottish National Gallery Monarchoftheglen.jpg
The Monarch of the Glen in the Scottish National Gallery

It was exhibited in London in 1851, 1874 and 1890. [5] From the collection of William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough it passed in 1884 to Henry Eaton, 1st Baron Cheylesmore after whose death in 1891 it realized £7,245 at his sale at Christie's in May 1892 (equivalent to £841,778in 2021), where it was bought by Agnew's, who resold it to T. Barratt for £8,000. In 1916 he resold it at Christie's for £5,250 (equivalent to £378,700in 2021). [6] The price in 1892 was the highest made by a Landseer before the 1960s, with the exception of a rumoured price of £10,000 in a private sale of The Otter Hunt in 1873, which would have then represented the highest price ever paid for a British painting. [7]

The painting was purchased in 1916 by Pears soap company and featured in their advertising. It was sold on to John Dewar & Sons distillery and became their trademark before similarly being used by Glenfiddich. The painting was then acquired as part of the purchase of Dewar's by Diageo. In 1997 Diageo sold Dewar's to Bacardi but this did not include ancillary assets. Diageo then loaned the painting to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

On 2 November 2016, Diageo announced their intention to sell the painting, as they stated it had "no direct link to our business or brands". [8] The National Galleries of Scotland was offered the painting, valued at £8 million, at half this price, if they could raise the required £4 million. A campaign was then launched to raise the funds, which succeeded. [9]

Modern derivatives and corporate logos

Challenge butter Challenge butter.jpg
Challenge butter

According to the Sunday Herald , the painting became a cliché by the mid 20th century as "the ultimate biscuit tin image of Scotland"; its usage included a 1940s tin of McVitie's shortbread. [2]

The painting has many copiers, one, The Challenger, was an inspiration for the sides of delivery trucks for Challenge Dairies whose heritage was later added to butter cartons in stores. [10] Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky has used a variation of Landseer's stag image in their logo since 1968. [11]

Company legend has it the first President of Challenge Cream and Butter Association, J.P. Murphy, now Challenge Dairy of California, chose the name from a variation of the mural, depicted on the company's current logo. [12]

In 2012 Peter Saville collaborated with Dovecot Studios Edinburgh to celebrate their centenary by creating a large scale tapestry of his work After, After, After Monarch of the Glen. This tapestry was Dovecot Studios' re-appropriation of Saville's version of Sir Peter Blake's usage of Landseer's 1851 painting. [13]

The painting has also been used on the label of tins of Baxter's Royal Game soup in the UK, [14] and as the backdrop for the front desk of the Rosebudd Motel from the Canadian television sitcom, Schitt's Creek .

The subject of the painting was cut and pasted into the sleeve of the 1983 Electric Light Orchestra album Secret Messages .

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Monarch of the Glen". National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  2. 1 2 Sunday Herald website, Moira Jeffrey, April 2, 2005
  3. ↑ "Sir Edwin Landseer's Monarch of the Glen, c. 1851 – European Romanticisms in Association".
  4. ↑ Monbiot, George (2014). Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life. University of Chicago Press. p. 149. ISBN   9780226205557.
  5. ↑ Christie's
  6. ↑ Christie's, £7145 per hand annotation; £7245 per Reitlinger, 359, who covers the further sales.
  7. ↑ Reitlinger, 358–359
  8. ↑ "Iconic Scottish painting The Monarch of the Glen to be sold". BBC. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  9. ↑ "Campaign to raise funds for Monarch of the Glen painting". BBC. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  10. ↑ "Monarch of the Glen". Sartle. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  11. ↑ October 2014, Tom May22 (22 October 2014). "New logo and branding for Glenfiddich whisky". Creative Bloq.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Our Story". 23 September 2008.
  13. ↑ "Peter Saville: After, After, After Monarch of the Glen". Dovecot Studios. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Baxter's label".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish National Gallery</span> Part of National Galleries Scotland in Edinburgh

The National is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diageo</span> Multinational alcoholic beverages company

Diageo plc is a British multinational alcoholic beverage company, with its headquarters in London, England. It operates from 132 sites around the world. It is a major distributor of Scotch whisky and other spirits. Distilleries owned by Diageo produce 40% of all Scotch whisky with over 24 brands, such as Johnnie Walker, J&B and Old Parr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwin Landseer</span> English painter

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenfiddich distillery</span> Scotch whisky distillery

Glenfiddich distillery is a Speyside single malt Scotch whisky distillery owned by William Grant & Sons in the Scottish burgh of Dufftown in Moray. The name Glenfiddich derives from the Scottish Gaelic Gleann Fhiodhaich meaning "valley of the deer", which is reflected in Glenfiddich's stag logo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Saville (graphic designer)</span> British graphic designer (born 1955)

Peter Andrew Saville is an English art director and graphic designer. He designed many record sleeves for Factory Records, which he co-founded in 1978 alongside Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.

<i>The Execution of Lady Jane Grey</i> Painting by Paul Delaroche

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey is an oil painting by Paul Delaroche, completed in 1833, which is now in the National Gallery in London. It was enormously popular in the decades after it was painted, but in the 20th century realist historical paintings fell from critical favour and it was kept in storage for many decades, for much of which it was thought lost. Restored and displayed again since 1975, it immediately became a highly popular work once again, especially with younger visitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Richard Lee</span> English artist (1798-1879)

Frederick Richard Lee was an English artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hartford</span> US-based insurance and investment company

The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., usually known as The Hartford, is a United States-based investment and insurance company. The Hartford is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in its namesake city of Hartford, Connecticut. It was ranked 160th in Fortune 500 in the year of 2020. The company's earnings are divided between property-and-casualty operations, group benefits and mutual funds.

<i>Laying Down the Law</i> 1840 painting by Edwin Henry Landseer

Trial by Jury, or Laying Down the Law as it is commonly known, is an oil-on-canvas painting from 1840 by the English painter Sir Edwin Landseer, which satirises the legal profession. It depicts dogs in the roles of members of the court with a French poodle centre stage as the judge. The painting was inspired by a chance comment by a judge, while at dinner with Landseer, that the French poodle belonging to amateur artist and renowned socialite, the Count d'Orsay, "would make a capital Lord Chancellor".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Eaton, 1st Baron Cheylesmore</span>

Henry William Eaton, 1st Baron Cheylesmore was a British businessman, Conservative politician, and art collector.

<i>The Death of Actaeon</i> Painting by Titian

The Death of Actaeon is a late work by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, painted in oil on canvas from about 1559 to his death in 1576 and now in the National Gallery in London. It is very probably one of the two paintings the artist stated he had started and hopes to finish in a letter to their commissioner Philip II of Spain during June 1559. However, most of Titian's work on this painting possibly dates to the late 1560s, but with touches from the 1570s. Titian seems never to have resolved it to his satisfaction, and the painting apparently remained in his studio until his death in 1576. There has been considerable debate as to whether it is finished or not, as with other very late Titians, such as the Flaying of Marsyas, which unlike this has a signature, perhaps an indication of completion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Ord Distillery</span>

Glen Ord distillery is a whisky distillery in the Scottish Highlands and is the only remaining single malt scotch whisky distillery on the Black Isle.

<i>Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia</i> Painting by Claude Lorrain

Landscape with Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia is a painting of 1682 in oil on canvas by Claude Lorrain, a painter from the Duchy of Lorraine who spent his career in Rome. It was painted in Rome for Prince Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna (1637–1689), Claude's most important patron in his last years, and is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It is signed, dated with the year, and inscribed with the subject, as Claude sometimes did with his less common subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar</span> Scottish distiller and politician

Thomas Robert Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar was a Scottish whisky distiller who, along with his brother John Dewar, built their family label, Dewar's, into an international success. They blended their whisky to make it more appealing to the international palate and Dewar demonstrated particular skills in marketing, travelling the world to find new markets and promote his product, exploiting romantic images of Scotland and tartan in his advertising.

Events from the year 1851 in Scotland.

William Meriton Eaton, 2nd Baron Cheylesmore is best remembered as a leading collector of English mezzotint portraits, and collector of other art. His mezzotints and other prints, over 10,000 in number, were left to the British Museum, and five oil paintings to the National Gallery, London. He also stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for the Conservative Party at Macclesfield in 1868, 1874 and 1880, and held a nominal partnership in the family silk business.

<i>Scene from A Midsummer Nights Dream</i> Painting by Edwin Henry Landseer

Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom is an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by British artist Edwin Landseer. Landseer was mainly known for his paintings of animals: this is his only painting of a fairy scene. The painting depicts a scene from the third act of William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. It has been in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia since 1932.

Glen Albyn distillery was a Scotch malt whisky distillery in Inverness, Scotland and operated from 1846 to 1983. Glen Albyn whiskey brand was relaunched in 2022.

<i>King of the Forest</i>

King of the Forest is an 1878 oil on canvas painting by French artist Rosa Bonheur. The work measures 244.8 cm × 175 cm. In the catalogue for an auction sale at Christie's in 2017, it was described as "Perhaps among the most important paintings by the renowned animalier Rosa Bonheur remaining in private hands" and "considered by the artist herself to be one of her masterpieces".

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.