Queen Victoria

Within the language of flowers, one remarkably consistent usage was the symbolic meaning of ‘Chastity’ attached to orange blossom (Citrus x aurantium). Queen Victoria elected to wear orange blossom – her only floral adornment – at her marriage to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840. The Times described her dress of ‘rich white satin, trimmed with orange-flower-blossoms… Her Majesty wore no diamonds on her head, nothing but a simple wreath of orange blossom’.

Queen Victoria’s choice of floral emblem and white silk wedding dress became the standard wedding attire for generations of Victorian brides, and spawned a fashion for orange-blossom jewellery. The most elaborate example of its kind was the suite of orange-blossom jewellery in enamel, gold and porcelain presented to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert at intervals between 1839 and 1846.

One of the first gifts Prince Albert sent his fiancée was a gold and porcelain brooch. It takes the form of a sprig of orange blossom, a flower traditionally associated with betrothal. At the wedding the Queen wore sprays of real orange blossom in her hair and on her bodice. Prince Albert continued to give the Queen orange blossom jewellery, another brooch and matching earrings in December 1845 and this headdress in Febraury 1846 (on their anniversary), eventually creating this beautiful set, parts of which she always wore on their wedding anniversary.

The headdress incorporates four small green enamel oranges, intended to represent the four eldest children - Victoria, Albert Edward, Alice and Alfred. The Queen wrote in her journal, 'it is such a lovely wreath & such a dear kind thought of Albert's' (10 February 1846).

Text adaped from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010 and Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, London, 2015.

Provenance

Given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert on their wedding anniversary, 10 February 1846. Worn at each subsequent wedding anniversary until Albert's death. This was one of a group of jewels placed in the ‘Albert Room’ at Windsor Castle after the Queen's death in 1901. This was the room in which Prince Albert had died in 1861 and the Queen left instructions for a specific list of personal jewellery to be placed there and not passed on in the family.

Within the language of flowers, one remarkably consistent usage was the symbolic meaning of ‘Chastity’ attached to orange blossom (Citrus x aurantium). Queen Victoria elected to wear orange blossom – her only floral adornment – at her marriage to Prince Albert on 10 February 1840. The Times described her dress of ‘rich white satin, trimmed with orange-flower-blossoms… Her Majesty wore no diamonds on her head, nothing but a simple wreath of orange blossom’.

Queen Victoria’s choice of floral emblem and white silk wedding dress became the standard wedding attire for generations of Victorian brides, and spawned a fashion for orange-blossom jewellery. The most elaborate example of its kind was the suite of orange-blossom jewellery in enamel, gold and porcelain presented to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert at intervals between 1839 and 1846.

One of the first gifts Prince Albert sent his fiancée was a gold and porcelain brooch. It takes the form of a sprig of orange blossom, a flower traditionally associated with betrothal. At the wedding the Queen wore sprays of real orange blossom in her hair and on her bodice. Prince Albert continued to give the Queen orange blossom jewellery, another brooch and matching earrings in December 1845 and this headdress in Febraury 1846 (on their anniversary), eventually creating this beautiful set, parts of which she always wore on their wedding anniversary.

The headdress incorporates four small green enamel oranges, intended to represent the four eldest children - Victoria, Albert Edward, Alice and Alfred. The Queen wrote in her journal, 'it is such a lovely wreath & such a dear kind thought of Albert's' (10 February 1846).

Text adaped from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010 and Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden, London, 2015.

Provenance

Gift of Prince Consort in 1845. These brooches were two of a group of jewels placed in the ‘Albert Room’ at Windsor Castle after the Queen's death in 1901. This was the room in which Prince Albert had died in 1861 and the Queen left instructions for a specific list of personal jewellery to be placed there and not passed on in the family.

The Queen had been pleased with Sir George Hayter’s painting of her Coronation (RCIN 405409) ‘which we thought a fine thing’, and commissioned him to paint her marriage, in particular the moment of the joining of hands.

Hayter had been to see the Chapel Royal a few days before the event, and sketched hard before and during the ceremony. Preparatory drawings survive in the British Museum. As in his Coronation, Hayter decided to alter dramatically the setting of the ceremony from what it actually looked like.

The tall Gothic canopy and the panelling below are invented and only the details of the huge door behind the bridal pair may have been suggested by the much smaller door at the entrance to the Chapel Royal. Hayter included portraits of 56 of those present at the occasion and sittings took place over the next year.

The Queen sat for him in March in her ‘Bridal dress, veil, wreath & all’, and Prince Albert also posed for his portrait several times during the following months. Hayter’s family too helped out with his son, Henry, modelling the Prince’s costume, while his daughter Mary posed for the Queen’s arm and wearing the veil.

Victoria’s aunt Queen Adelaide, however, was unwilling to co-operate and the artist had to refer to a miniature for her likeness. Hayter included himself in the painting, on the lower right, with his sketchbook and pencil. By the end of the year Hayter was committing himself to a third large picture of the Christening (RCIN 403501) of the newly-born Prince of Wales, and Prince Albert said that the Marriage picture should be hung at Windsor during the festivities.

When Hayter went to see it, however, he was disappointed as it was hung between windows with its back to the light, unlike the new portraits by Winterhalter which were hung in a beautiful light.

The artist returned to London ‘heavy hearted’. A number of copies of the Prince’s head and of the Queen’s were made in miniature for enamels to be set into bracelets for friends. Signed and dated: 'Giorgius Hayter. pingebat 1840 41 & 42'. Inscribed on the back by the artist with the subject and as: 'painted by George Hayter painter in ordinary to Her Majesty finished March 1842.'

Provenance

Commissioned by Queen Victoria

The head is identical to that in the portrait of the Prince wearing the uniform of the 11th Hussars, by the same artist (403021). Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, 1840.

Provenance

Commissioned by Prince Albert and given to the Duchess of Kent.

From earliest times the insignia of the Order of the Garter have included a garter. The origins of this tradition are obscure. The garter may be a reference to the military strap or band worn by soldiers in armour in the Middle Ages.

Such an object would have been familiar to Edward III's knights on their victorious French campaign that culminated in the Battle of Crécy in 1346, two years before the foundation of the Order. Prince Albert was invested with the Order at Gotha on 23 January 1840. Queen Victoria presented him with a spectacular set of Garter insignia on 8 February, two days before their wedding.

At a meeting that day with the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, ‘Lord M. admired the diamond Garter which Albert had on, and said “Very handsome.” I told him it was my gift; I also gave him (all before dinner) a diamond star, I had worn, and badge’.

The Prince wore the Garter with its motto, edges and buckle lavishly mounted with diamonds along with his Garter collar and star on his wedding day. Parts of the set appear in portraits throughout the rest of his life, by Hayter, Winterhalter, Lucas, Partridge and Fenton. Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010

Provenance

Commissioned by Queen Victoria and presented to Prince Albert as a wedding gift, February 1840

Lithograph key to the Henry Graves's print made after Hayter's paiting of the wedding ceremony of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Provenance

Transferred from Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, 22 March 2006.