TO loud cheers and much backslapping, Scotland is taking a monarch to a public hanging. No need for royalists to fear. We refer to a painting, and a special one at that. Monarch of the Glen is well known around the world. The majestic stag stands moody and magnificent amidst a misty Highland landscape of rough heather, towering mountains and a grey, tempestuous sky.
Painted in 1851 by an Englishman, Sir Edwin Landseer, the work has become, to use that overworked word, iconic. It is romantic in the best Victorian tradition and arguably mythologised, though such beasts and landscapes are real, and sometimes even more beautiful in reality.
Reality entered the wild, fantastic scene when the Monarch’s owners, drinks giant Diageo, announced they were selling the work. However, rather than seek the £8 million asking price, the company agreed the piece could come into public ownership if £4m could be found. And, thankfully, the National Lottery, the Art Fund, the Scottish Government, private trusts and foundations, and the great Scottish (and worldwide) public were not found wanting. The Monarch was saved by the people.
In reality, while privately owned, the Monarch had been hanging for years at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. But now it is the public property of the National Galleries of Scotland, which led the successful funding campaign, and the work will hang in the Scottish National Gallery before touring the country later this year.
It is fair to say the Monarch is not popular with all Scots. Originally commissioned for the House of Lords refreshment rooms at Westminster, critics discern crumbs of shortbread among the heather, decry the association with hunting, and deplore what they see as the symbol of a way of life destroyed for the “sporting” interests of a few.
However, the Monarch has outlived its Victorian pursuers. It has taken on a life and a meaning of its own. It lives to tell a story of Scotland, and Scotland has taken the stag to its heart. It is now the people’s Monarch.
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