Grantown Museum launches exhibition of Sir Edwin Landseer's rare works
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Grantown Museum has launched an exhibition of rarely seen works by the one and only Sir Edwin Landseer.
Nine of the great Victorian artist's original works are included in a superbly produced collection – complete with burly security guard!
It is a real coup for the attraction in the Strathspey capital and one that is bound to attract great interest from across the wider region.
Museum manager Dan Cottam described the exhibition as the small community museum’s most ambitious show ever and includes paintings from the Royal Collection.
Highlights of the exhibition include The Highlander and The Highland Lassie – commissioned by no less than Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
There was a launch party on Friday evening at the museum which was hugely enjoyed by art-lovers, artists and local residents who were told to enjoy themselves at leisure, since the exhibition will run until the end of September.
The exhibition is entitled ‘Landseer – A Highland Romance’ and explains just why Landseer became such a key figure in the artistic myth-making of the Highlands.
And if that is not dramatic enough then the tag-line for the exhibition is 'Obsession, oblivion and rapture in the Cairngorms'.
Landseer's unique skill quickly captivated Queen Victoria and her husband and his works championed the creation of a tourist industry which the Highlands relies on so heavily to this day.
Mr Cottam said: “Landseer followed his wealthy patrons from the upper-class drawing rooms of London to spend his summers in the wilderness of the Cairngorms.
“The drama of the landscape had a profound effect on the artist and his work, and he in turn would do much to popularise a romantic vision of the region.”
Mr Cottam said that the exhibition has got off to a flying start and he is looking forward to welcoming many more visitors through the doors at the museum located at Burnfield at the north end of the town.
He said: “I’m delighted that the exhibition is going very well.
“We’re getting great feedback and people seem genuinely excited and proud.
"People are coming to our museum specifically to enjoy the show. I can proudly confirm this is a completely home-grown project, created by Grantown Museum – this is not a touring show that we have helicoptered in but a genuine team effort here.”
Landseer followed his wealthy patrons from the upper-class drawing rooms of London to spend his summers in the wilderness of the Cairngorms.
The drama of the landscape had a profound effect on the artist and his work, and he in turn would do much to popularise a romantic vision of the region.
Mr Cottam said: "Tourism is a vital industry for the Highlands but also raises issues around sustainability, the allocation of resources, and housing.
"Tourism in the region as we know it today could be said to have grown out of Landseer’s time and been encouraged by the images that he produced – this exhibition looks at where it all began."
Paintings from not only the Royal Collection but also Woburn Abbey and The University of Dundee are now on display at the museum as well as works on paper from private collections, and photographs from the museum’s own collection.
The show also includes photographs from the museum’s own collection including shots of the Duchess of Bedford’s huts at Glenfeshie.
The loans are being supported by the Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund – the first ever UK-wide funding scheme to enable smaller and local authority museums to borrow works of art and artefacts from national collections.
Sophia Weston, Garfield Weston Foundation trustee, said: “Our programme is all about helping museums tell compelling stories through significant loans, and this is a perfect opportunity to encounter Landseer’s work amid the landscape that so inspired him.”
Landseer was hugely popular in his day – as well as painting The Monarch of the Glen he was the sculptor of the lions for the base of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.
‘Landseer – A Highland Romance’ runs until September 30 at the Grantown Museum and all are welcome to go along but visitors are asked to refrain from taking photographs of the treasured art works. Opening times are weekdays 10am to 5pm and weekends 11am to 3pm.
