This painting, called Disbanded, by John Pettie, depicts a scene from the Jacobite Uprising of 1745 to 1746. It shows a Highland Warrior, returning home with his spoils of war, including the distinctive redcoat worn by officers of the Government army. Inspired by the work of historical novelist Sir Walter Scott, Victorian artists like John Pettie helped to create the romantic image of the heroic kilted Highlander. Far from an individual fleeing the battlefield as a member of a defeated force, Pettie recasts the disbanded individual as a noble warrior. Images like these have become the way in which many people visualize Scots and Scotland today. This painting appears to have been inspired by conversations between Pettie and his friend and patron, the Dundee industrialist and art collector James Guthrie Orchar. John Pettie stayed with Orchar in 1877, before spending a long holiday at Callander, in the heart of Scott country. Pettie completed this painting later that same year. The painting was highly regarded and was used to illustrate the 1893 edition of Waverley. It was Scott’s most popular and best-known novel, and was set in the midst of the Jacobite uprising. Disbanded is one of our visitors’ favourite paintings.