Monarch of the Shires?
The iconic stag in Sir Edwin Landseer’s quintessentially Scottish painting may have been an English beast that never saw a glen
FOR more than 160 years, The Monarch of the Glen has been regarded as the quintessential symbol of the Highlands.
Now it has emerged that the magnificent stag depicted in Sir Edwin Landseer’s painting may actually have been part of a herd on an estate hundreds of miles south in England.
Official records at the Stoke Park Estate in Buckinghamshire claim the artist was a regular visitor and often painted the deer in its grounds.
The revelation comes only months after the National Galleries of Scotland raised £4million to secure the painting when drinks firm Diageo put it up for sale.
Although the backdrop is distinctly Scottish, it is thought the stag could have lived on the country estate owned by the Earls of Huntingdon.
Stoke Park, now a five-star hotel, says on its website: ‘Sir Edwin often visited Stoke Park and part of the ground floor of the house was beautifully furnished as a studio. Sir Edwin painted many pictures of the herd of deer in the park, including the famous Monarch of the Glen.’
London-born Sir Edwin had been visiting the Highlands for more than 25 years when he painted the picture.
Stoke Park spokesman Nick Downie said: ‘The background could well be from Balmoral, where Sir Edwin visited, so Scotland has a right to adopt the Monarch of the Glen as its own.’
The stag depicted in the painting is actually a Royal, identifiable by the 12 points on his antlers. A stag with 14 points is known as an Imperial, while only those with 16 points or more are Monarchs.
Sir Edwin produced The Monarch of The Glen after receiving a commission to paint three works for the refreshment room in the House of Lords. But when the House of Commons refused to grant the £150 promised for the commission, the paintings were sold to private collectors.
The Monarch of the Glen was purchased in 1916 by Pears soap company and featured in its advertising.
It was later sold on to John Dewar and Sons distillery and became its trademark before being used in a similar fashion by Glenfiddich.
The painting was acquired by Diageo after it bought Dewars and retained when the brand was sold to Bacardi in 1997. It was loaned to the National Museum of Scotland until last year, when Diageo announced it was putting it up for sale because it had ‘no direct link to our business or brands’.
A public fundraising campaign by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) raised the £4million Diageo wanted for the painting. Donations came from as far afield as Alaska and Hong Kong.
The oil-on-canvas work was expected to have fetched up to £10million at auction if Diageo had put it on the market.
It is thought the painting was completed at Sir Edwin’s studio in London, but an NGS spokesman said: ‘Though we can’t be sure of the precise location, there is no doubt Landseer’s The Monarch of the Glen depicts a Highland setting.
‘From 1824 he made annual trips to the Highlands and painted the magnificent wildlife and landscapes of the region. The resulting paintings range from intimate and remarkably fresh studies painted on the spot to his most famous large-scale picture, The Monarch of the Glen.
‘Landseer suggested its identity when he first exhibited the painting by including, in the accompanying catalogue, lines from an anonymous poem called Legends of Glenorchy, which describes a stag named “the Monarch of the Glen” surveying the landscape from his “lair” in “wild Glen-Strae”.
‘He enjoyed aristocratic patronage and painted at many estates across Britain, including Lord Breadalbane’s Blackmount Estate in Argyll – home to the Forest of Glenorchy.’
The painting, which measures 5ft by 5ft, is currently on display in Inverness, where it will stay for seven weeks. It will then be shown in Perth, Paisley and Kirkcudbright as part of a nationwide tour.
Sir Edwin, who was also responsible for the bronze lions around Nelson’s Column in London’s Trafalgar Square, died in 1873, aged 71.
‘Often visited Stoke Park’