Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
123.2 × 175.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of James Graham Esq., 1889
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
At 5.00 a.m. on 13 February 1692 the forces of William III – all of whom, under the false pretence of collecting taxes, had been billeted with the citizens of Glencoe, Scotland – rose against their MacDonald hosts to execute a ‘secret and sudden’ massacre. William III’s troops, acting upon the English monarch’s presumption of Scottish support for the exiled Stuart king James II, were instructed to ‘put all to the sword under seventy’, and after doing so they burned Glencoe’s villages to the ground. After the Massacre of Glencoe depicts the few survivors, climbing to safety into the breathtakingly beautiful hills above their torched homes.
Inscription
inscribed in brown paint l.l.: Peter Graham / 1889
Accession Number
p.315.1-1
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
History and Legend Landscapes Military and Warfare
Subjects (specific)
burning fire (physical concept) Glencoe (valley) massacres mountain landscapes (visual works) rocks (landforms) Scotland (country) United Kingdom (nation)
Frame
Original, English, 19th century, surface not original