An oil painting by Rev. Peel Ross
In 2024 a dramatic painting, showing the horrors of the battlefield on 16th April 1746, went back on public display for the first time in decades, following months of specialist conservation work.
Painted by Rev. Peel Ross in the late 19th or early 20th century, he mounted the canvas on kitchen linoleum. This was a very unusual choice of backing material but presumably the only thing he had that was large enough to support a canvas almost 2.5 meters (over 7 feet) wide! But a century later, the lino had started to degrade and bubble, putting every brushstroke at risk.
Thanks to generous grants from the Inverness Common Good Fund and the AIM Pilgrim Trust Remedial Conservation Scheme, the painting was saved. It was conserved by Egan, Matthews & Rose, who are fine art conservators in Dundee, who also have experience of working with linoleum. After a few months of pain-staking work, the painting was freed from its lino support, cleaned, re-mounted and given a smart new frame.
The Battle of Culloden can be seen in the Jacobite gallery on the first-floor. Its homecoming inspired a redisplay of the Jacobite collection, with the addition of a few more items that had also been in store, including a painting of Dr Archibald Cameron of Lochiel and a gold pocketwatch that belonged to Flora MacDonald.
References
INVMG.0000.0160 Donated by Mrs Peel Ross
Photo by Ewen Weatherspoon
