Scottish painting Monarch of the Glen could end up abroad
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Version 0 of 1. One of Scotland’s most recognised and reproduced paintings, Sir Edwin Landseer’s The Monarch of the Glen, is to appear at auction with a real possibility of it being sold abroad. The Englishman’s depiction of an enormous stag in a misty Highlands landscape is being sold by Diageo, the multinational drinks company. The painting came into the firm’s possession after a merger – it was formerly owned and used as a trademark for Dewar’s and then Glenfiddich whiskies. For the past 17 years the artwork has been on long-term loan to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. It will go on sale at Christie’s in London on 8 December and is expected to fetch about £10m. A spokesman for Diageo said the painting was being sold because it had no direct link to its business or brands. “We have made a major contribution by loaning the work for the past 17 years, but we believe the time is right for us to pass on the ownership of the painting. “The priority for Diageo is to ensure all our assets are focused on growing our business and delivering value for our employees, shareholders and the communities where we operate.” The question posed by the sale is whether any public gallery would be able to make a bid for such a well-known painting. If it were sold to a foreign buyer the government could place a temporary export bar on the work to allow a Briton to purchase it instead. A spokesperson for the National Galleries of Scotland said The Monarch of the Glen was “an important Victorian picture that has taken on various layers of meaning, which include its use in advertising and as a romantic emblem of the Highlands of Scotland. “National Galleries of Scotland always carefully considers any paintings with a strong Scottish dimension that come on to the market, but for obvious reasons we never comment on our potential interest ahead of a sale.” The 1851 painting, commissioned for the House of Lords. Peter Brown, Christie’s international head of Victorian and pre-Raphaelite art, said it was an extraordinary artwork, describing it as “one of the greatest pictures of the 19th century and known worldwide”. He said Landseer was conveying universal qualities of nobility, command of environment and athleticism. There will be some who find it a tricky painting to enjoy, perhaps seeing it is a biscuit tin cliche, but Brown disagreed. “Yes of course it has a universal currency in that it has been so widely reproduced,” he said. “But it is an extraordinarily masterful piece of painting … the brushwork is superb, the way the mist parts round the beast, the dew on the antlers, the realisation of fur, the way the heather sparkles in the morning light. “There is an incredible sense of command and destiny there and it is those qualities that lift it out of the ordinary and make it so beloved.” Nevertheless, the painting divides people. Landseer was undoubtedly celebrating the stag’s splendour but he was also seeking to raise sporting subjects to high art. The overfed animal is a quarry and presumably one the artist, a keen hunter, would have wanted as a trophy. Does Landseer’s celebration of sport in the Highlands ignore the displacement of working families in the 19th century to make way for vast sporting estates? The Monarch of the Glen belongs to a group of grandiose deer paintings Landseer created in the 1840s. Others include The Sanctuary, in the Royal Collection, and The Challenge, owned by the Duke of Northumberland. Though Diageo is selling its Landseer, it has donated another famous painting to the National War Museum for long-term loan – Robert Gibb’s The Thin Red Line, depicting the 93rd Highlanders halting a Russian cavalry charge during the Crimean war. Gordon Rintoul, director of National Museums Scotland, said he was “delighted” that Diageo was donating The Thin Red Line, which “is one of the best known of all Scottish historical paintings and is the classic representation of military heroism as an icon of Scotland”. |