Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Reigned 1837-1901

  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Japan
    City: Tokyo
    Place: British Embassy

    This copy of the first state portrait of Queen Victoria to be painted by Frans Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) shows the young queen at just 24. Winterhalter was one of the favourite artists of Victoria and she was reportedly delighted with this work and with a companion portrait of her husband, painted at the same time. The original works remain in the Royal Collection.

  • About the artist
    Franz Xaver Winterhalter was one of Queen Victoria’s favourite artists. Born in Menzenschwand, Germany, he settled in Paris in 1834. He was introduced to Queen Victoria by her uncle, Leopold King of the Belgians. Between 1843 and 1871, Winterhalter carried out a vast number of royal commissions in England, spending six to seven weeks there each summer, where he painted chiefly at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Winterhalter left Paris to live in Karlsruhe in 1871. Two years later, news of his death in Frankfurt, the result of typhus, reached Queen Victoria. ‘With all his peculiarities,’ she wrote to her eldest daughter, ‘I liked him so much’.
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  • Details
    Title
    Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Reigned 1837-1901
    Date
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 115.00 cm, width: 80.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Mrs S C Conner, June 1964
    GAC number
    6499