Queen Victoria

Winterhalter succeeds spectacularly. The regal status and grandeur of the royal couple is revealed by the dress of the royal couple and the gilded thrones on which they sit. The Queen wears a luxuriant evening gown, with three brooches, a pair of earrings and a diadem of emeralds and diamonds all designed by Prince Albert.

The Prince wears court dress – black velvet breeches, a white satin waistcoat and black dress coat cut fashionably tight on the arms. Both wear the ribbon and star of the Garter and Prince Albert also wears the badge of the Golden Fleece and the Garter itself on an elegant black-stockinged leg.

In contrast, although richly dressed, the children are shown informally, the Prince of Wales in a Russian tunic leans on his mother, but meets the gaze of his father. The two Princesses, Victoria and Alice, play with the infant Princess Helena. On the left, little Prince Alfred toddles towards them, wearing the skirts worn by young boys up to the age of about five.

Here was an image of a royal family on show to the world. The painting was first exhibited to the public in 1847 in St James’s Palace, where it was seen by 100,000 people. Queen Victoria wrote of the painting in her journal – ‘such beautiful, brilliant, fresh colouring – and we were enchanted.’ Many joined in the Queen’s enthusiasm, but some members of the press were less than enchanted, noticing the unconventional way the sitters were depicted in casual poses – unlike the formal portraits by Van Dyke, Zoffany and other royal portraitists in past ages to which they were accustomed.

The critic from the journal ‘Athenaeum’ wrote that the picture showed ‘such a want of taste – as make us frankly rejoice that it is not from the hand of an Englishman’ –but an engraving issued of the picture proved a great success, proving him totally out of touch with popular feeling.

The children who attended were aged between six and fourteen and were dressed in a wide variety of costumes including national dress. Prince Leopold and Prince Arthur were dressed as the sons of Henry IV, and their sisters, Helena and Louise, as Swiss peasant girls Agneni’s watercolour shows the brilliance and excitement of the occasion, twinkling candelabra and chandeliers under a blue dome like a tent with cords, covered with gold stars and painted with birds – a feature that has since disappeared.

The Queen and Prince Albert look down on proceedings from a raised dais in the background, attended by ladies in waiting. The dance appears to be an energetic one, a gallop perhaps or a polka.

Queen Victoria loved dancing and Johann Strauss Senior had brought his orchestra and introduced the waltz at Buckingham Palace some years before. Among the crowd can be discerned the two Princes and their sisters, ballerinas with tulle skirts, a winged cupid, a shepherdess in green and pink, and a long-haired cavalier, all colourfully reflected in the tall mirrors placed here and there around the elegant room.

Christenings were always great occasions for the Royal Family, and although splendid, were not necessarily formal, as images such as Louis Haghe’s painting would confirm. The Queen and Prince Albert stand on the left, with their other children beside them.

The godparents are gathered reverently but informally round the font where the Archbishop, clearly identified by his white wig, looks down at the baby Princess in his arms, her long, lace christening robe on display.

The Queen usually dictated the guests’ dress for these occasions, the colour scheme often in the patriotic colours, red, white and blue with touches of gold on men’s uniforms that echoed the glint of gold from the font just visible between the onlookers.

The Chapel Royal at Buckingham Palace was built in 1844 on a space originally designed as a conservatory in the time of George IV. The decoration of the new chapel was designed by Prince Albert. Destroyed by bombing during World War II, the site of the Chapel is now The Queen’s Gallery.

In this little sketch, the Queen captures the bright-eyed but slightly anxious attention the little boy is giving to the tall soldiers looming over him. The liveliness of the image suggests that she great took pleasure in portraying the detail of the weight and angle of the drums, the soldiers’ posture and uniform with a few strokes of her pencil.

Cobould’s light-hearted touch endeared him to all the royal children and perhaps accounts for the many watercolours they have left in the Royal Collection.

In the two sketchbooks belonging to the Prince of Wales that remain, Cobould has made a drawing on the left-hand side of each page, and the Prince has copied it on the right.

This impressive caricature of a fierce-looking Admiral with his splendid moustaches must have been fun for Bertie to do, and he signs it with a flourish on the right as if he enjoyed it – AE fecit August 1854 – Albert Edward made it, August 1854.

The Royal Family had taken a great interest in the war. The Queen and Prince Albert took their elder children to visit wounded soldiers on their return to England, and invited war veterans to the Palace.

The card is painted in watercolour, overlaid with gauze and a doily. Four flag poles fan out in the centre, holding the flags of Great Britain and her allies in the war: left to right, the Kingdom of Sardinia, the Ottoman Empire with a crescent moon finial, Great Britain and France, with an eagle finial. Inscribed over the top of the flags in gold paint: CRIMEA – the ‘C’ depicted as an Ottoman crescent moon and star.

A ribbon scrolls across the top of the card with N & E (Napoleon and Eugenie) to the left with a bee, their family emblem, between the initials, and V & A (Victoria and Albert) to the right, with a rose between theirs. At the top of the card is a V for victory and above it, surrounded by a wreath, the date of the ending of the war, 1856, with golden rays bursting from it.

Below the flags are a rifle, crossed swords and a sabre, a cannon and cannon balls. Below them on the left is a classical device, a fasces, a bundle of sticks bound with ribbon with a battle axe coming out of the top, which in Roman times, denoted power. On the ribbon is the motto Union Fait la Force – In Union is Strength. The fasces is half-hidden by a swathe of roses, shamrocks and thistles, the floral emblems of Great Britain. Below is another ribbon, with ‘GOD SAVE THE QUEEN,’ in gold.

Seemingly relaxed and informal, they stand on either side of their tutor, Mr Gibbs, who has an arm round Affie, the other holding his top hat on his lap. Bertie leans on Mr Gibbs’ shoulder, a cane in his hand – but he looks away and in turn, Mr Gibbs looks away from him with a tense, thoughtful expression.

Affie seems a little more at ease, but his eyes are downcast and one hand clutches the other. Charged with the upbringing of a future king and the second in line to the throne, Mr Gibbs’ routine for the boys was gruelling and Bertie in particular didn’t respond well, so the photograph has perhaps an air of a duty fulfilled rather than a celebration of the boys’ relationship with their tutor.

In this picture, Princess Helena is eight and Princess Louise seven, years old. The girls learnt German and French, and many of their governesses were from those countries – some staying for several years, others for a much shorter time, apparently like Miss Illhardt about whom little is known.

Not only is Miss Illhardt bundled up in heavy, voluminous clothing, the little girls peeping out from under their huge hats, seem weighed down in garments too. But they look up at their governess with an enquiring expression that would seem to express a certain relationship between them, and suggesting that their outing might prove a pleasant, if somewhat overdressed occasion.

The photographers were summoned from London to take the photograph – a rare example of the whole family, with all nine children together. The photograph was taken two days after the Queen’s birthday. A month later, in June 1857, Prince Albert was given the official title of Prince Consort.

Queen Victoria sits in the centre, with Princess Beatrice on her lap. Behind her stands Prince Albert. To the left of the Queen and left to right: Prince Alfred (aged 13) leaning on the balustrade, Princess Alice (aged 14), Princess Helena, (aged 11) with her father’s hand on her shoulder, and in front of her, Prince Leopold (aged 4).

To the right of the Queen and left to right: Prince Arthur (aged 7), and behind him, Princess Victoria, Princess Royal (aged 17), Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (aged 16), and Princess Louise (aged 9). Within a few months of the photograph being taken, the Princess Royal was married to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.

His elder sister Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, had been married to Prince Frederick of Prussia for two years, and his elder brother, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, was on an official tour of Canada.

The photograph, taken by an equerry of Prince Albert, is a celebration of Prince Alfred’s return from sea. In 1858, he had passed ‘a brilliant examination’ and was a midshipman on HMS Euryalus.

He sits, wearing his uniform, with his youngest sister Princess Beatrice on his knee, his favourite sister Princess Helena beside him and Princess Louise behind them. On the right, Princess Alice and Queen Victoria herself look down, no doubt with pride, on the young man dandling the little sister who would have been only a year old when he went away.

They have blue corselet tops with black laces over white blouses with huge, white puff sleeves, a pink rose tucked in at the chest. A black collar with a bow under the chin and blue pumps on white stockinged legs complete the outfit, except for the little, flat straw hats, covered in pink and blue flowers perched fetchingly over one eye.

They look at a picture book in a brotherly way, dressed as the sons of King Henry IV, in cream tights and padded tops with blue pointed collars. They each wear one blue and one cream shoe. Their hats are on the floor beside them with the gloves that every gentleman wore at a ball to protect his lady’s dress from sweaty palms.

Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death.

Princess Beatrice (1857-1944) was the fifth daughter and youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This portrait was among the ‘lovely sketches’ painted for the Queen by Winterhalter in the summer of 1859.

The Princess is wearing an Arab burnous (a cloak with a hood) and carrying a doll in a Russian peasant costume. Signed and dated: Fr Winterhalter 1859. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, June 1859.

Provenance

Acquired by Queen Victoria

Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death.

Prince Arthur (1850–1942) was the third son and seventh of the nine children of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He had a career in the army and became Governor-General of Canada.

Here the three-year-old Prince is depicted in uniform, with a musket. The uniform is stated to be that of a Lieutenant in the 1st Foot Guards, but the shoulder-strap plate and the arrangement of the buttons on the cuffs are those of the 3rd, or Scots Fusilier, Guards. The uniform was passed on to Prince Arthur’s son, ‘Little Arthur’, who appeared in it at tea on 6 March 1885. The uniform was ‘too tight for him, though the former wore it when he was 3’, according to Queen Victoria’s notes in her Journal. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, July 1853.

Provenance

Commissioned by Queen Victoria and given to Prince Albert on his birthday, 26 August 1853

Princess Victoria (‘Pussy’) is portrayed at the age of eight months, wearing a white dress with pink satin ribbon and a pendant around her neck – perhaps the ‘miniature beautifully set in a small wreath of diamonds, with a row of pearls attached to it’, a christening present from her grandmother the Duchess of Kent (Journal, 10 February, 1841).

Eos was Prince Albert’s favourite pet and it will have been no coincidence that she has been included with his beloved daughter in a picture intended for his birthday.

The greyhound was apparently very docile with children, Queen Victoria remarking on one occasion that ‘it was quite pretty to see her [Pussy] playing with “Eos”, who is so gentle & the child so delighted with her, patting her with both her hands’ (Journal, 21 June, 1841).

Sittings for this picture took place during June and July 1841; the Queen wrote in a letter to the Queen of the Belgians that the child’s behaviour and appearance had been exemplary. Prince Albert is recorded as having been ‘quite delighted’ with the picture (Journal, 26 August 1841).

It was hung in his Writing Room at Buckingham Palace. The ‘bergère’ in which the Princess lies is one of a set of six still at Buckingham Palace (RCIN 2411), made by Morel and Hughes in 1812 for George IV and intended for Carlton House.

The Barbary dove perched on the arm of the chair, which Landseer may have included as a symbol of childish innocence, was probably another pet, imported from Africa. Text adapted from 'Victoria and Albert: Art & Love', London, 2010

Provenance

Commissioned by Queen Victoria (payment dated 10 November 1841, £200, RA VIC/ ADD T/ 231/5) and presented to Prince Albert on his birthday, 26 August 1841

The Queen sits at the left with the infant Helena on her knee, with Prince Alfred and Princess Alice on either side. Prince Albert stands at the centre, with King Edward VII as Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal to the right.

Attended by a female figure and with a view of the interior of the nursery in the background. Cut down and adhered to a secondary sheet of paper, with title adhered below. Not in O'Donoghue

Prince Albert's first etching was made on 28 August 1840, under the guidance of Sir George Hayter who was working on his oil painting of the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (RCIN 407165) at the time.

Hayter was responsible for the acid-biting of all of the early plates but was soon replaced in this task by Queen Victoria's dresser, Marianne Skerrett. The London dealers and publishers Colnaghi & Co were also used for some of the more complicated plates. A printing press was set up at Buckingham Palace in 1840 by the firm of Holdgate but some of the royal couple's plates were also printed by a Mr Brown of Castle-Street, Windsor, in the autumn of that year.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's first child Victoria, Princess Royal was born on 21 November 1840. The nursery life of the growing brood of royal children offered the young couple a wealth of inspiration for their own painting, drawing and etching.

For the newlywed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert much of the pleasure of etching was derived from working together and a number of their plates were collaborative efforts.

The drawing executed by Prince Albert and used for this etching (RCIN 980024.k) was inspired by an original design by Queen Victoria (RCIN 980024.i).

In anticipation of the birth of their first child, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa, on 21 November 1840, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert commissioned a new baptismal font. It is one of only two English silver fonts (the other having been made for Charles II in 1660).

The somewhat secular iconography of water lilies and harping putti was deemed appropriate for a piece of christening plate as lilies were considered to represent purity and water lilies were associated with new life. Water lilies appear later on Queen Victoria's christening present to her grandson, Prince Albert Victor.

The font was ordered through the firm of E. & W. Smith who supplied Queen Victoria with several items of domestic plate in the early part of her reign. Evidently the firm subcontracted the job in their usual manner, in this case to Barnard & Co., who presented a bill on 8 February 1841 for £189 9s. 4d. The sum included an additional charge for altering one of the three coats of arms on the font for the Queen, the Prince and the Princess.

It may be that the engraver assumed that the first child would be a boy and after the birth in November an alteration was required to the ‘label of difference’. The date set for the baptism was 10 February 1841, the Queen and Prince Albert's wedding anniversary. The ceremony was conducted in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury using water from the River Jordan.

Queen Victoria judged that the font looked ‘very beautiful’. The baby, dressed in Honiton lace and white satin, did not cry, and her mother recorded that ‘Albert & I agreed that all had gone off beautifully & in a very dignified manner’ A painting by C.R. Leslie shows that the font was placed on a circular centre table for the occasion.

At the Prince of Wales's christening, which took place at Windsor a year later, the Charles II font was used as a stand. Barnard's font has been used at every royal christening since 1841. Text from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love.

Provenance

Commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1840 and delivered in 1841. Used at the christening of Princess Victoria, the Princess Royal, in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, 10 February 1841. Bill from Barnards 10 February 1841, for £401 10s.

Provenance

Presented to Queen Victoria by Marie-Amélie, Queen of the French, May 1852, with the portraits of Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice being later additions.

Provenance

Presented to Queen Victoria by Marie-Amélie, Queen of the French, May 1852, with the portraits of Prince Leopold and Princess Beatrice being later additions