EDINBURGH.- One of the world’s most celebrated paintings – Sir Edwin Landseer’s iconic The Monarch of the Glen (c.1851) – has returned to the Scottish National Gallery after completing its landmark tour of Scotland.

Landseer’s masterpiece – famously depicting a proud stag imperiously surveying a Highlands landscape – arrives back in Scotland’s capital city after travelling across the nation, with the public now having enjoyed the painting in major art galleries and community events in the east, west, north, south and centre of the country.

Across its tour The Monarch of the Glen was seen by over 28,000 visitors, from those in galleries to schoolchildren engaging with the artwork in various communities. Additionally, the Inverness, Paisley and Perth galleries all experienced double their average visitor figures from the previous year (Kirkcudbright Galleries was a brand new venue).

The artwork was acquired last year by the National Galleries of Scotland (NGS) after a well-publicized fundraising campaign, with overwhelming support from the public, from The National Lottery, Art Fund, private trusts and foundations, Scottish Government acquisition grant funding and by a part gift by previous owners Diageo Scotland Ltd.

It is the Galleries’ ambition to share its collection widely and work in partnership with communities across Scotland, and the Monarch’s tour has been supported with additional funding from The National Lottery and the Scottish Government.

Sir John Leighton, Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland said: “This tour was a massive thank you for the remarkable support we received during the fundraising campaign, as well as being a celebration that this brilliant, widely recognised artwork now belongs to the people of Scotland. Thanks to The National Lottery and the Scottish Government’s generosity, the Monarch has been able to visit Scottish communities far and wide, where audiences have been able to admire, debate and greatly engage with the work. The celebration of its homecoming to Edinburgh is also a celebration of the whole tour’s great success”.

Last October the Monarch left the Scottish National Gallery for the Scottish Highlands and its first destination, Inverness. The work went on display in Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, and was shown alongside a thought-provoking response by celebrated contemporary artist Ross Sinclair, entitled ‘After After After The Monarch of the Glen, Real Life Is Dead’ (2017).

It then left the north for Perth Museum and Art Gallery, but not before making a special surprise stop nearby in Aberfeldy, where school pupils of the local Breadalbane Academy could enjoy the painting in the back of the Galleries’ art-moving truck, in its specially adapted travelling frame. The idea for the visit was inspired by an old sketch for BBC Scotland’s programme Chewin’ the Fat, created by comedians Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill. The latter gave the visit his public backing and described it as, “his proudest moment”.

In January this year it arrived in the east of Scotland with a special community visit to Arkleston Primary School in Renfrewshire before being welcomed at Paisley Museum and Art Gallery in an event attended by schoolchildren and featuring special performances by contemporary dancers inspired by the work itself.

The tour then culminated in Scotland’s south in the town of Kirkcudbright, helping to usher in the beginning of the redeveloped Kirkcudbright Galleries, which opened on the same day as the painting was unveiled to the public. Prior to this, the painting also made a stop to Gatehouse of Fleet Primary School for a special community event.

Later this year, the Monarch will be shown in the London’s National Gallery for the first time in more than 160 years. The gallery once housed the Royal Academy of Arts, the original setting in which the painting received its first ever showing back in 1851. On display in London alongside Landseer’s masterpiece will be artist Sir Peter Blake’s 1966 representation of the Monarch.

Stephen Deuchar, Director of Art Fund, said: “We are pleased to hear that following its tour of venues across Scotland Edwin Landseer’s masterpiece The Monarch of the Glen has returned to its permanent home at the Scottish National Gallery. Art Fund’s support for this important acquisition was the starting point for a public fundraising appeal which captured the imagination of people nationwide, and its success means this powerful and iconic painting can now be enjoyed by everyone for years to come”.