Added Artefact: Menagerie Painting: Princes Street from the Mound, Edinburgh

The following oil painting by Charles Halkerston (-1899) is owned by Edinburgh Museums and Galleries(contact direct to see this painting). It was kindly pointed out to me by Dr Tom Normand, School of Art History, St Andrew’s University, otherwise it might have gone unnoticed due to its title.

I cannot find anything concerning the artist, but it looks a fine example of a social historical document painted in 1843.

The menagerie can bee seen to consist of wagons(the yellow/brown slats in the painting, which have been drawn in a square or a rectangle to form the booth. This was possibly an annual fair occurring in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

George Wombwell was often a visitor to Edinburgh, Wallace his famous lion, being born there in 1812. There’s no knowing which menagerie it was of course, but the painting gives the approximate scale of menageries and other booths at these mid century fairs. The elephant and entourage could be the start or the finish of a parade down Princes Street.

by Charles Halkerston dated 1843, Oil on panel, 28 x 47.3 cm

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