Flood in the Highlands or A Highland Flood
Landseer was one of the 19th century’s most renowned painters and was reputed to have been Queen Victoria’s favourite. He first exhibited his work at the Royal Academy in 1816 when only fourteen years old and went on to establish his reputation with a series of animal subjects, particularly horses, dogs and stags who were often shown parodying human behaviours. In 1858, the government commissioned Landseer to make four bronze lions for the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
This painting is a replica, painted in 1864 by Landseer, of the original work exhibited at the 1860 Royal Academy exhibition and now in Aberdeen Art Gallery. The painting depicts the Muckle Spate, a flash flood that devastated much of Strathspey in north-east Scotland on 3 August 1829. Across the north-east, seven people lost their lives, 22 bridges and 60 houses were destroyed and 600 families were made homeless.
