Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The Return of Mary Queen of Scots to Edinburgh
James Drummond British, born Scotland
Not on view
Drummond drew constantly throughout Scotland, using his sketches to help create the elaborate Scottish historical and literary narratives for which he was famous. This unfinished panel depicts a scene from the life of Mary, Queen of Scots, probably the dramatic moment in 1567 when she was sent to Lochleven Castle, incarcerated on charges including those of having murdered her second husband. The panel demonstrates the artist’s methodical planning: large areas are still untouched save for underpaint or drawing, while the evocative street scene is built up with brown wash and white highlights. The rather piecemeal approach to constructing the painting may have been inspired by practices known from traditional Italian panel painting. It is not clear why the artist abandoned the work, but he carried the composition through in a canvas now in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh.
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