A watercolour view of the Dubh (Dhu) Loch as seen from the east end, with Cairn Taggart in the distance and stags on the hillside in the foreground. Signed and dated "J Giles/1849". Verso: inscribed with the title and "17 September 1849". The date inscribed on the verso of this watercolour references the date of Queen Victoria's visit to this loch, which she described in her journal as "only a mile in length & very wild, the hills rising perpendicularly from it". According to his diary, two weeks later the Aberdonian landscape painter James Giles received instructions to paint Dhu Loch, along with other outdoor Scottish views (seemingly RCINs 919623, 919624 and 919625). He travelled to the loch to both sketch it in person and verify a sketch he had made on an earlier occasion, but did not begin working his sketches up to this finished watercolour until November of that year. Folio 34 of one of Giles's sketchbooks, which is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 932572), is annotated by the artist "for the Queen's drawing" and shows studies of stags used in this watercolour. This watercolour was originally mounted in one of the nine Souvenir Albums that Queen Victoria compiled with Prince Albert during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.