Queen Victoria. Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Signed and dated 1842. Oil on canvas. 133.4 x 97 cm. © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024. RCIN 401413. Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Anna Reynolds explains that Prince Albert's portrait by Winterhalter, of the same year, was a pendant to this one, the pair having been the first works commissioned from Winterhalter by the young Queen.
The portrait is unmistakably that of a public figure. Yet it also full of personal meaning. The Queen, Reynolds continues,
wears a white silk and lace evening dress with a number of items of jewellery of significant sentimental value. The sapphire and diamond brooch pinned to her bodice was a wedding gift from Prince Albert. The sapphire and diamond tiara is unconventionally worn at the back of the head over the fashionable plaited and looped hairstyle. Probably designed by the Prince in the year the portrait was painted, the tiara is said to have been inspired by a portrait of Henrietta Maria in the manner of Van Dyck (London, National Portrait Gallery, no. 1247). The necklace is probably the locket containing Prince Albert's hair which had been a gift from Queen Louise of the Belgians. The spray of roses held by the Queen is also strikingly reminiscent of Van Dyck's English portraits. The extravagant use of lace reflects the Queen's known desire to encourage British producers such as those in Honiton. [63]
The specific encouragement to the British textile trade comes somewhere between the personal and the public significance of the portrait, and shows how closely Victoria's private and official roles were entwined in her life. — Jacqueline Banerjee
Links to Related Material
Bibliography
A.R. (Reynolds, Anna). Entry 12 in Victoria & Albert: Art & Love. Edited by Jonathan Marsden. London: Royal Collection Publications, 2010: 63. [Review].
"Queen Victoria (1819-1901)." Web. Royal Collection Trust. Web. 28 July 2024.
Queen Victoria's Journals (Library access).
Created 28 July 2024