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.
Painting credit: Edwin Landseer