[Dead Stag] 1856

Curator: This haunting gelatin silver print, dating back to 1856, is titled "[Dead Stag]". It was captured by Horatio Ross and now resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What strikes you first about it? Editor: Gut-wrenching, isn't it? The sheer stillness, like a tableau of defeat, that stag sprawled on the rocks... it feels heavy. It just makes me want to whisper. The gray tones amplify that melancholic feel. Curator: Absolutely. The image is rich with the symbolism of Romanticism, yet it presents a stark, almost journalistic realism. The death of the stag becomes a microcosm of the conflict between nature and humanity. Hunting at the time, particularly in the Scottish Highlands where Ross lived, was tied up with class, power, and land ownership. Editor: Oh, you're hitting on something for sure...There's this immediate, graphic impact, but also an invitation to contemplate this stag's final moment in the wild. Look at how the stream just flows indifferently nearby—almost heartless but probably closer to something more like, well, balance. And that little rustic bridge, maybe put there by humans. It almost taunts us as proof of intrusion. It looks so picturesque and harmless but contributes to a context of disruption. Curator: Exactly. The stag as a symbol of untamed wilderness is a recurrent theme, frequently used to stir sentiments concerning themes such as nationalism, liberty, and loss, even at a time when Highland identity was romanticized yet concurrently suppressed. The stag, positioned beside that bridge, becomes a potent visual metaphor for the environmental and social repercussions of progress. Editor: Yeah, thinking about that romanticisation, it almost feels… I don’t know, performative? This stag is robbed not only of his life, but then is cast as a figure in someone else’s ideal landscape, someone who feels justified to bring something so inherently wild, still into his collection. I suppose that tension is partly where its artistic charge derives. I find that a fascinating, troubling space to dwell. Curator: Well, your visceral response highlights the enduring potency of this photograph, encouraging viewers to engage with these complex layers of meaning. Editor: Indeed. You know, even as we’ve intellectualised it, there's this primal thing happening…that creature, now just stone cold, staring out in oblivion, that is the haunting heart of it for me.