The Last Sleep of Argyll

This painting hangs in one of the ante rooms to the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. I see it every time I am there for an event, as I was tonight for a dinner involving those producing Scottish food, those teaching about food in schools or focussed on improving school meals and those pursuing local food procurement in the public sector.

The story of Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll is a long and complex one and the image that the painting suggests ( and this blip is only a detail from it) of a man at peace with his religious conscience is somewhat of an over simplification, to say the least.

But for all its Victorian exaggeration, Ward's representation is a fine one and always worth looking at.