Live Auction 14311Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, Maritime Art, Sporting & Wildlife Art
Queen Victoria (1819-1901), after Franz Xavier Winterhalter
Lot 35

Queen Victoria (1819-1901), after Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Portrait of Princess Louise (1848-1939), head and shoulders, in a blue dress

Closed22 March 2017

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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Queen Victoria (1819-1901), after Franz Xavier Winterhalter
Portrait of Princess Louise (1848-1939), head and shoulders, in a blue dress
signed, inscribed and dated 'Victoria R/after F. Winterhalter./1851.' (lower right) and with inscription 'H.R.H. Pcess Louise./copied by Queen Victoria./(her 1st attempt in Oils)/from F. Winterhalter. 1852' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas, painted circle
13 x 13 in. (33 x 33 cm.)

Property from the Collection of H.R.H. The Prince George, Duke of Kent K.G., K.T., and H.R.H. Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent C.I., G.C.V.O. and their families; Christie's, London, 20 November 2009, lot 65.

Specialist note

The present picture is after Franz Xavier Winterhalter's Portrait of Louise, Princess of Great Britain & Ireland (1848-1939), later Duchess of Argyll in The Collection of Her Majesty The Queen (no.429). It was painted for Queen Victoria, who recorded sittings for it on 3 May 1851. Winterhalter was paid £40 for the portrait, which was placed in the Antique Room at Buckingham Palace (VR Inv. 399); moved to Windsor Castle in 1883 and hung in the Red Drawing Room; transferred into the Audience Room set into the frames originally containing Gainsborough's oval portraits of the Family of George III (Inv. no. 2075).

Queen Victoria's Portrait of Princess Louise is one of three portraits, after Winterhalter, that she painted in the Summer of 1851. The other two were painted soon after Winterhalter had 'done charming little heads of Clem's little girls' (Queen Victoria's Journal, 5 July 1851) and are of Princess Clothilde and Princess Amalie of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (The Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, no. 1052 and 1053).