Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, R.A. (London 1802-1873)
The Monarch of the Glen. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2016
The Monarch of the Glen by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, R.A. (1802-1873) will lead the Christie’s Old Master evening sale on December 8. This major highlight of Classic Week comes at the culmination of Christie’s 250th anniversary year. The c1849-51 work will feature alongside important works by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Bernardo Bellotto and Edward Lear. The auction will mark the fourth occasion that The Monarch of the Glen has commanded Christie’s saleroom, having last been offered precisely a century ago, in 1916. The painting is one of the most celebrated works of British art. It was originally commissioned in 1849 for the Refreshment Room in the House of Lords.
John Stainton, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Old Master and British Paintings Department said: “Following this year’s record-breaking Old Master sales which include Rubens’s ‘Lot and his Daughters’ and, via private treaty, two Rembrandt Portraits and the iconic ‘Armada Portrait’, there is perhaps no more fitting a conclusion to our 250th anniversary than the return of Sir Edwin Landseer’s ‘The Monarch of the Glen’ to Christie’s King Street. The sales in 1884 and 1892, prompted Landseer to become known as the ‘king of the salerooms’ and in 2016 Landseer’s masterpiece will lead Christie’s December Classic Week.”
UPDATE: THE PAINTING HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN FROM AUCTION. It is now the subject of a fundraising campaign by the National Galleries of Scotland. Diageo, which owns the work, has agreed to gift half the £8 million value, the NGS has until mid March to raise the remaining £4 million