The wounded eagle

Landseer greatly admired the Scottish Highlands, visiting every year from 1824 sketching and shooting. It was his romantic depictions of the Scottish Highlands which fascinated Queen Victoria and led her to become one of his key patrons. Notably, The Queen commissioned the artist to paint The Highlander (The Royal Collection, inv. 401515) - a portrait of Peter Coutts, the royal gamekeeper at Balmoral, in a snowstorm with a dog at his feet and holding a dead eagle. In correspondence with the artist, Queen Victoria's Principal Dresser, Marianne Skerrett (1793-1887), asked that 'the Highlander ... should represent the national sport of the country' (O. Millar, The Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: The Victorian Pictures, Cambridge, 1992, p.150, no. 414).

White-tailed (as in the present drawing) and Golden eagles were frequently hunted across Highland sporting estates throughout the 19th century in order to protect the estates' game birds.