Highland Music

Edwin Landseer's Highland Music of 1829 depicts a Scottish shepherd playing bagpipes while his dog howls in anguished accompaniment — a comic but affectionate treatment of the relationship between man, dog, and music that typifies Landseer's anthropomorphizing tendency. The Scottish Highland setting reflects his deep attachment to Scotland, where he traveled from 1824 onwards and developed the subjects — stags, sheepdogs, Highland ponies and their owners — that defined his mature career. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were devoted admirers, and Highland subjects acquired a royal imprimatur that made them enduringly fashionable in Victorian Britain.

Landseer's meticulous rendering of the animal's fur and expression demonstrates his unrivaled ability to depict animal character. The warm interior lighting and the careful rendering of the Highland setting create an intimate domestic scene.