During Queen Victoria’s first visit to the Highlands of Scotland, from 21 August to 17 September 1847, she stayed at Ardverikie, a house borrowed from the Duke of Abercorn. She wanted Landseer to create a memento of this holiday to give Prince Albert for Christmas. She wrote to Prince Albert’s secretary, George Anson, suggesting:

‘a Cabinet Picture in size, representing a dead Stag, with the back ground taken from the Scenery close here — the Lake with some of the most known Hills — a Highlander should be near the deer, & perhaps the Prince of Wales in his kilt, & herself might be represented looking at it; but he might paint them in, without any attempt at likeness as the figures should be only 6 or 7 inches in height & the whole Picture about 19 inches by 13 in: It need not be an elaborate picture, but the Queen anxiously wishes to have it for Xmas Eve, & though he will now make only a dead deer with a Gilly near it & the Loch & hills behind, so as to ensure its completion or make more indication in the distance of the Queen. The Picture itself might also be smaller than 19 inches by 13. Mr Anson should make Mr. Landseer understand that that she is very anxious to have this, & that she w-d be content with as little as possible, if she can only get it . . . Perhaps Lord Abercorn might help in getting Landseer to do this Picture, & to sketch it when he (L.) comes here. But great secrecy must be observed.’ (Letter of 4 September 1847)

The Queen sounds very anxious, but in this case Landseer delivered a finished work for Christmas 1847, for which he was paid £200.

This painting operates at two levels. On one a ghillie, bearing the stag shot by Prince Albert, has failed to recognise the simply dressed lady out sketching with her children until he is upon them. He bows awkwardly, accompanied by his equally confused deerhound, with cap in hand and feet placed in parallel, a means of designated plebeian posture since the time of Hogarth. The Queen responds with a gracious bow, so solemn that it resembles a player; the Prince of Wales points with pride to his father’s booty. At another level the scene is dominated by its landscape background, depicting the end of Loch Laggan looking towards the East Binnein and painted with a freshness and brilliance quite new within the genre of conversation. Even the Queen adopts a humble posture before the majesty and beauty of God’s creation, which she appreciates in her capacity as an artist and as a Christian.


Inscribed on the back with the name of the artist, the subject and the date, September 1847, and with the initials of the artist and the date, Christmas 1847

Text adapted from The Conversation Piece: Scenes of fashionable life, London, 2009