One of the world’s most famous animal paintings, The Monarch Of The Glen, is going on display at The National Gallery for the first time in more than 160 years.
Edwin Landseer’s large depiction of a stag will be the centrepiece of an exhibition on the close connections between the 19th-century artist and the gallery.
The exhibition will also include paintings and drawings connected with the lions that Landseer designed for Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
It will highlight the artist’s close relationship to Queen Victoria, who he taught etching and accompanied to the Scottish Highlands, and will include paintings and drawings by Landseer of Highland scenes “showing how he developed his distinctive approach to the representation of the stag as hero.”
The Monarch Of The Glen, to be displayed at the gallery this autumn for the first time since 1851, was commissioned for the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.
It has been loaned by the National Galleries of Scotland, which acquired the work in 2017 following a public fundraising appeal.
The National Gallery also announced it will display Impressionist paintings from The Courtauld Gallery, bought in the 1920s by Samuel Courtauld, alongside works from its own collections which the businessman financed and helped acquire.
Opening this autumn, Courtauld Impressionists: From Manet To Cezanne will trace the development of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings with over 40 masterpieces from Daumier to Bonnard.
The Courtauld Gallery is closing temporarily in September as part of a major transformation project.
