Queen Victoria at Loch Laggan 

Curator: Edwin Landseer may be best known for his paintings of animals, but his portrait, “Queen Victoria at Loch Laggan” brings his royal patronage into sharp focus. The Queen is featured on the right, near a small group including bagpipes, her family and two ponies laden down. What stands out to you first? Editor: It is truly charming. There’s a kind of luminous softness about the color palette and the misty blues of the landscape that draws me in. It gives the whole composition a sense of dreaminess. Curator: Dreaminess, yes. But also, I think, a staged sense of informality. Landseer had a close relationship with the royal family and in many ways helped shape public perception of Victoria. There is no official record of such visit made to the highlands though the painting presents one. What do you think he's communicating here? Editor: The way Landseer manipulates the light and shadow—it's quite strategic. The light catches Victoria and the children in such a way as to almost separate them from the rugged terrain, it definitely idealizes their image in the scene. It subtly elevates the figures of power over nature. Curator: Exactly! This image really speaks to the rise of celebrity culture. Victoria became an incredibly influential figure, but also a pop culture icon. And how art, in the era before accessible photography and digital media, solidified images in the public imagination. It's clever how Landseer used light. Editor: For sure, if we just look at form—see how the horizontal lines of the landscape, and the figures, work to give the piece a grounding sense of calm despite the staged tableau. What do you notice? Curator: That makes me think more broadly about the politics of display: about how images such as this played a pivotal role in visualizing the British Empire, both for those living within it, but especially those ruled by it. The family is painted in harmony with their Scottish landscape. Editor: It certainly invites us to reflect on that relationship between image, power and nature! Thank you for these interesting contextualizations of Edwin Landseer. Curator: Absolutely. And for me, this reminds us of the ways the Victorians helped set many standards of art practice, the image-making, and royal representation with which we still reckon.