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拍品 141
H.M. Queen Victoria (1819-1901)
Head of a maid, in profile to the left, in a blue dress, with ribbons in her hair
已结束2015年12月16日
成交价
GBP 30,000
更多信息
专家说明
On 18 July 1851, the day this portrait was painted, Queen Victoria was recorded by The London Gazette as being at Whitehall performing courtly duties. She also spent some time reflecting on the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, which had opened on 1 May 1851 to incredible acclaim, and became one of the most significant personal and national successes of Queen Victoria's early reign. She wrote: 'It was such a time of pleasure, of pride, of satisfaction & of deep thankfulness, it is the triumph of peace & goodwill towards all, - of art, of commerce, - of my beloved Husband - & of triumph for my country.' (Journal, 18 July 1851, quoted in T. Royle, Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854-1856, 1999, p. 1). A month later in August 1851 Queen Victoria painted her daughter, Princess Helena (1846-1923), in the same profile pose (Royal Collection Trust).
Queen Victoria studied painting from the age of eight, firstly under Richard Westall (1765-1836) and latterly (and often with her husband, Prince Albert) by a number of the leading artists of the day including Edward Lear (1812-88), William Leighton Leitch (1804-83), George Hayter (1792-1871) and Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-73). She developed her skills by copying drawings by Westall, but soon used these to record the landscapes and characters around her, filling her sketchbooks with views of the Scottish Highlands, drawings of her family and members of the Royal household, with rare examples executed in oil on canvas.
The 1961 sale in which this picture was included, held at Christie's in aid of the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, which consisted of 153 lots consigned by collectors, artists, writers and musicians. These names included contemporary artists such as John Piper, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Augustus John, musicians such as Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst and Sir William Walton, writers such as T.S. Eliot, John Betjeman, and W.H. Auden, and collectors such as Sir Colin Anderson, the Rt Hon. the Earl of Harewood and Sir Kenneth Clark. The painting by Queen Victoria achieved the fourth highest price in the sale, one of four works to sell for over £400. The whole sale achieved £12,000. The Festival was founded by Britten and Pears in 1948, and took place in local churches and halls until, after a long fundraising campaign, aided by Christie's auction, they created a permanent site by converting the Victorian maltings at Snape, five miles from Aldeburgh, into a new theatre and arts venue.
Queen Victoria studied painting from the age of eight, firstly under Richard Westall (1765-1836) and latterly (and often with her husband, Prince Albert) by a number of the leading artists of the day including Edward Lear (1812-88), William Leighton Leitch (1804-83), George Hayter (1792-1871) and Sir Edwin Landseer (1803-73). She developed her skills by copying drawings by Westall, but soon used these to record the landscapes and characters around her, filling her sketchbooks with views of the Scottish Highlands, drawings of her family and members of the Royal household, with rare examples executed in oil on canvas.
The 1961 sale in which this picture was included, held at Christie's in aid of the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, which consisted of 153 lots consigned by collectors, artists, writers and musicians. These names included contemporary artists such as John Piper, Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Augustus John, musicians such as Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst and Sir William Walton, writers such as T.S. Eliot, John Betjeman, and W.H. Auden, and collectors such as Sir Colin Anderson, the Rt Hon. the Earl of Harewood and Sir Kenneth Clark. The painting by Queen Victoria achieved the fourth highest price in the sale, one of four works to sell for over £400. The whole sale achieved £12,000. The Festival was founded by Britten and Pears in 1948, and took place in local churches and halls until, after a long fundraising campaign, aided by Christie's auction, they created a permanent site by converting the Victorian maltings at Snape, five miles from Aldeburgh, into a new theatre and arts venue.