A Highland Flood
by Edwin Henry Landseer
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Date painted: 1864
Oil on canvas, 69.3 x 121.8 cm
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum
Russell-Cotes Road East Cliff, Bournemouth, Dorset, England, BH1 3AA
This painting was inspired by a real incident, a sudden flash flood that devastated the valleys at the foot of the Cairngorms and Monadhliath mountains on 3-4 August 1829. Landseer has piled incident upon incident in a pyramidal arrangement in order to convey the mounting terror and confusion of the villagers as the water rises beneath them. The painting has been described as a Highland version of Noah's ark.