Flood in the Highlands: after Sir Edwin Landseer

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Original artist: Sir Edwin Landseer RA

B: London 1802-1873

Sir Edwin Landseer was one of the most popular of romantic painters working in Britain during the first half of the nineteenth century. He took a cottage deep in the Highlands in Glenfeshie and when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert leased Balmoral as a royal residence, Landseer became a frequent visitor, instructing the young Queen in drawing and etching. Landseer’s paintings told stories, bore moral messages, contained pathos and homely sentiment.  This painting was inspired by a real incident, a sudden flash flood that devastated the valleys at the foot of the Cairngorms and Monadhliath mountains on 3-4 August 1829. Landseer has piled incident upon incident in a pyramidal arrangement in order to convey the mounting terror and confusion of the villagers as the water rises beneath them. The painting has been described as a  Highland version of Noah’s ark.

Photoshoot Location: Torry Battery, Aberdeen