El monarca del valle

Landseer painted this red deer stag in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, when Britain was showing off its industry to the world and, at the same time, falling hard for a romantic idea of the wild Scottish Highlands. It was commissioned to hang in the refreshment rooms of the House of Lords. Then the House of Commons refused to pay the 150 pounds promised for it, and the stag was sold off to private hands instead. The 12-point buck stands against the mist as if he owns the mountain. Over the next century his image was printed, engraved, and eventually stuck on soap and whisky, until in 2017 a public campaign bought him for Scotland for 4 million pounds.