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. The stag has twelve points on his antlers, which in deer terminology makes him a "royal stag" but not a "monarch stag", for which sixteen points are needed. 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.
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, and, as a result, the paintings were sold to private collectors. It has been claimed that the landscape setting shows Glen Affric. It was exhibited in London in 1851, 1874 and 1890. 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, 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. 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. 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". 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.
Modern derivatives and corporate logos
The painting has been inspiration for certain company logos and founding principles. The logo of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc, a U.S. insurance services company, is taken directly from this painting, as is that of Exmoor Ales. 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. Nestlé Waters North America's Deer Park Spring Water uses a variant reverse image of the logo. 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. 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 Peter Saville's appropriation of Sir Peter Blake's appropriation of Sir Edwin Landseer's 1851 painting Monarch of the Glen. Glenfiddich single malt Scotch whisky has used a variation of Landseer's stag image in their logo since 1968. The painting has also been used on the label of tins of Baxter's Royal Game soup in the UK. The Chinese coffee house chain Luckin Coffee uses an abstract version as its logo.
