Search results

Start typing

Scottish Artists

A collection of works by Scottish Artists collected by British monarchs from George III to the present day.

JAMES GILES (1801-70)

A View of Balmoral

Signed and dated 1848

Oil on panel | 56.0 x 81.6 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external) | RCIN 405007

Prince Albert had bought the lease to Balmoral Castle in Scotland after Sir Robert Gordon, the lessee, died in 1847. It was, according to Queen Victoria, ‘a pretty little castle in the old Scottish style. There is a picturesque tower and garden in front with a high wooded hill: at the back there is wood down to the Dee; and the hills rise all around’. In June 1852 Prince Albert bought the estate outright. The painting shows a view of the old castle from the east, as if from the high ground above Crathie and with the bend in the River Dee below. The road where a rider and dog are depicted leads from Ballater to Braemar. Queen Victoria bought this painting and another by the same artist of Lochnagar, a mountain on the Balmoral estate (RCIN 405007) to give to Prince Albert for Christmas in 1848. Signed and dated: J. Giles / 1848.

    The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.