âThe Monarch of the Glen,â 1851, Sir Edwin Landseer
Sir Edwin Landseerâs The Monarch of the Glen is perhaps the most widely-copied of Victorian paintings. It has been used for everything from the Hartford Insurance Companyâs stag logo (c. 1867) to biscuit tins and butter wrappers.
Completed in 1851, it was part of a three-panel commission destined for the Refreshment Rooms of the House of Lords in the ânewâ Palace of Westminster. The House of Commons, however, balked at paying Landseerâs bill of ÂŁ150. Thatâs about ÂŁ17,000 in todayâs money, whereas Monarch is valued at about ÂŁ10 million. Apparently, the 19th century House of Commons wasnât very good with money.
âOld Shepherdâs Chief Mourner,â 1837, Sir Edwin Landseer
Monarch was sold instead to one Lord Londesborough for 350 guineas. Londesborough sold it to Lord Fitzgerald, who in turn sold it to Lord Cheylesmore. It was owned briefly by the Pears Soap Company and sold in 1916 to Thomas Dewar, who wanted it for the Dewar whisky business in Perthshire.
From there it became a corporate asset, traveling with the Dewarâs name as it was absorbed into larger and larger companies. Eventually, Dewarâs was bought by the worldâs largest manufacturer of booze, Diageo. They sold the brand but kept the stag. In 1999, Diageo loaned the painting to the National Galleries of Scotland, where it has hung ever since.
âA Distinguished Member of the Humane Society,â 1838, Sir Edwin Landseer. Landseer had a thing for Newfies.
Having decided that the painting has no relevance to its current brands, Diageo has decided to peddle the thing at public auction in March. If the National Galleries can raise ÂŁ4 million from the public, Diageo will donate the remainder of the value of the painting. (If you are interested in contributing, you can do so here.)
When Landseer painted Monarch of the Glen, he was working within a craze for all things Scottish. Greatly influenced by Sir Walter Scottâs romantic novels, young Queen Victoria and her husband first visited Scotland in 1842. It became one of their favorite hang-outs. Whisky itself was newly respectable after the Excise Tax of 1823 legalized its distillation. Forever after, whisky and stags have been linked together in our sentimental view of Scotland.
Landseer is most famous for his lions at the base of Nelsonâs Column in Trafalgar Square, but he was a prolific and popular painter of Victorian sentimentality. When he died in 1873, all Britain mourned. By the 20th century, when Monarchwas being slogged around for advertising purposes, Landseerâs animal portraits were anathema to high-brow art critics. We are more or less past that now.
âMan Proposes, God Disposes,â 1864, Sir Edwin Landseer
I canât imagine how much money has been made by The Monarch of the Glen in its 165 years. Itâs sold soap, insurance, whisky and everything else. (In modern America, artists donât automatically transfer licensing with works of art, thank goodness.)
Diageo is under no legal obligation to give Monarch to Scotland. However, it has indirectlyâthrough the acquisition and resale of the Dewarâs marqueâmade a lot of money off the old stag. Since its net income last year was in excess of ÂŁ2 billion, it wouldnât suffer from writing off the whole ÂŁ10 million tab.
Still, I expect the Scottish people will stump up the ÂŁ4 million. Hereâs hoping that The Monarch of the Glen stays in Edinburgh forever.