A POWERFUL exhibition of new works by the acclaimed Scottish artist Calum Colvin OBE is to form the centrepiece of commemorations for the 270th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden.

The battle took place on 16 April, 1746, and defeat for the army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart brought to an end the Jacobite Rising which had begun the previous year and which had seen defeat for Government forces at both Prestonpans and Falkirk Muir.

The battle and its bloody aftermath can still cause upset all these years later. The defeat of the Jacobite army at Culloden led to the infamous suppression of Highland culture by the Government of King George II, a process which began on the battlefield where his son, the Duke of Cumberland, ordered the execution of wounded opponents.

It was the last pitched battle on British soil and despite a huge reward put on his head and Government troops searching across Scotland for him, Bonnie Prince Charlie was able to escape back to the Continent, dying in Rome almost 42 years after Culloden. Much of the site of the battle at Culloden Moor near Inverness is managed by the National Trust for Scotland which is helping to organise the events.

The exhibition Jacobites by Name, originally commissioned for the Scottish National Galleries, opens today in Inverness Museum and Art Gallery and runs to 5 May. Calum Colvin will also give a talk at the venue on 19 April.

It is expected that Colvin will explain some of the symbols and secret signs which are so much a part of Jacobite arts and crafts.

This year’s Culloden Anniversary Service, organised by the Gaelic Society of Inverness, will take place at the memorial cairn at the battlefield on Saturday 16 April at 11am. There will be a procession to the cairn, and an address will be given by the noted Highland scholar Professor Hugh Cheape.

The previous day there will be a talk on the “Archaeology of the Jacobite Uprisings: evidence from National Trust for Scotland properties” at the battlefield visitor centre on 15 April.

The exhibition by Colvin will feature his trademark skills which inventively combine photography with painting and installation to create the artworks.

Inverness Museum stated: “Inspired by works in both The Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery’s Jacobite collections, this contemporary intervention by the renowned Scottish artist Calum Colvin includes original artworks interspersed with the historical artefacts displayed in our First Floor Gallery.

“The result includes new works such as Lochaber no More (2015) which links two images of Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, the second Jacobite pretender to the throne and instigator of the failed 1745 Jacobite Rising. The first of the images shows Charles as a young man and the other much older.

“To make his photographic works, Colvin constructs a set in his studio, using furniture and ornaments, and then paints images on to these three dimensional objects. When seen through the lens of his camera, a two-dimensional image is formed, a blend of reality and illusion. The works are a powerful evocation of the passage of time and the melancholy of lost Jacobite hope.”

“In his work, Colvin also alludes to the tradition of secret symbolism and optical illusionism in Jacobite-related art; because support for the exiled Stuarts was dangerous and could lead to accusations of disloyalty to the Crown, ‘secret’ portraits of the Pretenders and icons associated with the Royal Stuarts were to be discovered as surprise elements on many objects including drinking glasses and concealments behind the lid of closed boxes.”

Battle was neither a victory or defeat for Scots

TO many people, Culloden is seen as a defeat for Scotland and the Scots, but the complexity of politics in Britain and Europe at that time means such a simplistic view does not stand close examination.
For while the Jacobite Army was mainly Scottish, it also had a sizeable contingent of French and Irish troops. Similarly the Government Army consisted of English and Scottish soldiers – with as many as a quarter of the victors are believed to have been Scots.
The make up of the two armies resulted from the fact that the Jacobite Rising was supported by the French, while the Government could call on the loyalty of mainly lowland, mainly Church of Scotland soldiers who were determined the Roman Catholic Charles Edward Stuart would not gain the throne of the United Kingdom. 
Until Culloden, this had been a civil war that could have gone either way. Indeed only a few weeks before, the Jacobites had triumphed at the Battle of Falkirk Muir where they lost just 50 men to the 300-plus lost by the Government Army.
That hapless defeat did not cost General Henry Hawley his job as commander-in-chief of the Government forces in Scotland, but it did bring William Augustus, the battle-hardened Duke of Cumberland, onto the scene as captain-general. It was rumoured that Hawley was the illegitimate son of King George II, which is possibly why Cumberland let him keep his job.
The Battle of Culloden itself lasted less than an hour. Experienced leadership, superior artillery, better weaponry and soldiers who had been trained with bayonets specifically to withstand a Highland charge gave the Government forces a huge advantage.
The Jacobite charge did not work and defeat followed swiftly.  Then came the dreadful slaughter of prisoners and wounded, ordered by Cumberland and Hawley.     
To this day, no regiment of the British Army claims Culloden as a battle honour.
- Hamish Macpherson