The Cousins. Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Signed and dated 1852. Oil on canvas. 66.7 x 50.8 cm. © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2024. RCIN 404875. Courtesy of the Royal Collection Trust. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
With the young Queen here is Victoire, duchesse de Nemours (1822-1857), who was the cousin of both the Queen hereself, and and Prince Albert, since she was the daughter of their uncle, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg. The three got on very well together, and when the French royal family were exiled to Claremont in Surrey the duchess often visited them at Buckingham Palace. Sadly, she died at Claremont in 1857, after her fourth child was born. She was only thirty-five. The Queen was devastated, writing in her diary at Windsor Castle on Tuesday 10 November 1857:
What was my horror & consternation on being told, that our beloved Victoire, whom we had left quite well on the 7th was no more!! A gentleman had brought a few distracted lines from Nemours, describing the state of grief & consternation as awful. Dear Victoire had been quite well, her hair was being brushed & her combed, when she gave an exclamation, & her head sank. Before Nemours could rush upstairs, all was over. Too dreadful. Terribly distressed. [Vol. 44, p. 92].
This gives such a poignant context to the easy informality of this family "snapshot." — Jacqueline Banerjee
Link to Related Material
Bibliography
A.R. (Reynolds, Anna). Entry 36 in Victoria & Albert: Art & Love. Edited by Jonathan Marsden. London: Royal Collection Publications, 2010: 90. [Review].
"The Cousins." Web. Royal Collection Trust. Web. 28 July 2024.
Queen Victoria's Journals (Library access).
Last modified 28 July 2024