Tradition and Innovation
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Eugene Barilo von Reisberg Tradition and Innovation: Official Representations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter Master of Arts Thesis University of Melbourne, 2009 i Tradition and Innovation: Official Representations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter by Eugene Barilo von Reisberg, B.A. Hons Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts (by Thesis only) Faculty of Arts School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne November 2009 ii Tradition and Innovation: Official Representations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter by Eugene Barilo von Reisberg, B.A. Hons Abstract: The thesis focuses on four sets of official portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, which were painted by the German-born elite portrait specialist Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) between 1842 and 1859. These portraits are examined in detail and are placed within the contexts of the existing scholarship on Franz Xaver Winterhalter, British portrait painting of the 1830s and 1840s, and the patronage of portraiture in Britain during the reigns of William IV and Queen Victoria. The thesis compares and contrasts these works with official representations of Queen Victoria and her husband by British artists; and examines the concept of “gender reversal” within the accepted notion of marital pendants by highlighting Winterhalter’s innovations in the genre of official portraiture. The thesis challenges the perception that Winterhalter’s employment at the court of Queen Victoria was due to the Queen’s alleged penchant for “all things German” by placing Winterhalter’s portraits within the context of the British Royal Collection. It examines the reasons for the artist’s success at the British court, accentuating among others Winterhalter’s ability to conceptualise in his portraits of Prince Albert the hierarchically-complex position of the Prince Consort. The overarching arguments of the thesis focus on two propositions - that by employing a foreign artist as her official image maker, Queen Victoria acquired ultimate control over the production, distribution and popularisation of her own imagery; and that this patronage is illustrative of the emergence of a royal and aristocratic international iconography that overrode the competing concept of ‘national’ schools of art. iii This is to certify that the thesis comprises only my original work except where indicated in the preface; due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used; the thesis is 31,177 words in length (or 37,336 words in length inclusive of footnotes), but exclusive of tables, maps, appendices and bibliography. --------------------------------------------------------- Eugene Barilo von Reisberg 27 November 2009 iv Mr Eugene Barilo von Reisberg Student no 80080 Tradition and Innovation: Official Representations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter Short Abstract: The thesis focuses on four sets of official portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It establishes the context and discourse of British portraiture and its patronage during the 1830s and 1840s; compares and contrasts Winterhalter’s 1842 portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with earlier representations of the Queen and Prince; examines in detail Winterhalter’s official portraits of Victoria and Albert, traditions and innovations within these works, and the meaning and significance of their semiotic conceptualisation. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The life and work of Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) has been a subject of my dedicated research for a number of years, and brought me in touch with a fascinating group of people and numerous public and private collections across many countries and three continents. It would probably be impossible to enumerate everyone, who in many different ways contributed to my understanding and knowledge of Winterhalter’s oeuvre. Therefore, I would like to acknowledge those, without whom this particular thesis would not have been possible. – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and the curatorial team of the Royal Collections, in particular Mr Desmond Shawe-Taylor, The Keeper of the Pictures, Ms Janice Sacher, Curator of the Royal Collections, and Dr Susie Owens, of the Royal Library and Print Room, Windsor Castle; – His Majesty Albert II, King of the Belgians, and the staff of the Royal Collections, in particular Mlle Martine Vermeire; – the Estate of the Earl of Beauchamp, Mandresfield Court: Mr P.W.A. Hughes; – La Trobe University Art Museum: Ms Rhonda Noble, and the staff of the Borchardt Library; – Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly: Mme Nicole Garnier; – Musée d’Orsay: Mlle Caroline Mathieu; – Musée du Château de Compiègne: Mlle Françoise Maison and Mlle Emmanuelle Macé ; – Musée du Louvre: Mme Elisabeth Foucart-Walter; – Musée Jacquemart-André: Mlle Hélène Couot; – Musée National du Château de Versailles: Mlle Valérie M.C. Bajou; – Museum of Russian Art, Kiev: Research Library; – Pechersky Monastery, Kiev: Research Library; – Rhode Island School of Design, The Museum: Ms Maureen O’Brien; vi – State Library of Victoria, Melbourne; – University of Melbourne: Baillieu and E.R.C. Libraries. In many personal ways, Ms Sadie Chandler, the Earl and Countess of Clancarty, Dr Vivien Gaston, Ms Catherine Holc, Mr Charles Nodrum, Ms Louise Oliver, Ms Sonia Payes, Mr Greg Page-Turner, Mr Paul Taylor, Ms Lee Tierney, and M. Christophe Vachaudez for their contribution, assistance, and the willing ear during the preparation of this thesis. Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to my thesis supervisor and mentor, Dr Alison Inglis, for her continuous support and encouragement, and for helping me to channel my creative energies in order to assemble the disparate threads of my previous research on Franz Xaver Winterhalter into a coherent piece of academic writing. Eugene Barilo von Reisberg, Melbourne, 2009 vii The Chicago Style has been adhered to throughout the thesis (cf. The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition (Chicago and London: the University of Chicago Press, 2003)). Please, note the following exceptions which have been adhered to consistently throughout the theses: As full bibliography appears at the end of the thesis, only short citation of sources appears in footnotes (cf. ibid, 594-5). Cited sources have been abbreviated to the surname of the author and the date of the publication. For example, “Stanley 1916, 286” instead of “Eleanor Stanley, Twenty Years at Court: From the Correspondence of the Hon. Eleanor Stanley, Maid of Honour to Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria 1842-1862, ed. Mrs Steuart Erskine (London: Nisbett, 1916), 286.” The full reference list of abbreviations appears in the Bibliography section, i.e.: Stanley 1916 Stanley, Eleanor. Twenty Years at Court: From the Correspondence of the Hon. Eleanor Stanley, Maid of Honour to Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria 1842-1862. Edited by Mrs Steuart Erskine. London: Nisbett, 1916. With the exception of sovereign heads of state, foreign names and titles of nobility have been preserved throughout the text, for example, Fürstin or Duchesse instead of Duchess; or Freiherr instead of Baron, etc. Relevant page numbers (where known) have been provided for newspaper citations. viii CONTENTS: Acknowledgements iv List of Figures x Introduction 1 Chapter I Establishing the Context: 11 British Portraiture and its Patronage, 1830-1837 Chapter II Early Official Portraits of 31 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1837-1842 Chapter III Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Official Portraits of 65 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1843-1859 Conclusion 94 Bibliography 98 Illustrations 111 Appendix I 169 Appendix II 175 ix LIST OF FIGURES: Cover: Franz Xaver WINTERHALTER (1805-1873), Queen Victoria (1819-1901), 1843, oil on canvas, 273.1 x 161.6 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Windsor Castle (The Royal Collection © HM Queen Elizabeth II) (Detail of Fig. 46). Fig. 1. Sir Thomas LAWRENCE (1769-1830), Karl Erzherzog von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen (1771-1847) [Charles, Archduke of Austria], oil on canvas, 269.9 x 178.4 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Windsor Castle (from Millar 1977, plate XXVIII). Fig. 2. Samuel DIEZ (1803-1873), after Sir William BEECHEY (1753-1839), Queen Adelaide (1792-1849), née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen, c. 1831, oil on canvas, Meiningen, Meininger Museen (from www.meiningermuseen.de, accessed 15 October 2009). Fig. 3. Sir David WILKIE (1785-1841), William IV (1765-1837), 1832, oil on canvas, 270.5 x 177.2 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Windsor Castle (from www.royalcollection.org.uk, accessed 15 October 2009). Fig. 4. Sir Martin Archer SHEE (1769-1850), William IV (1765-1837), 1833, oil on canvas, 270.5 x 178.1 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Windsor Castle (from www.royalcollection.org.uk, accessed 15 October 2009). Fig. 5. Sir Martin Archer SHEE (1769-1850), Queen Adelaide (1792-1849), née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Meiningen, 1836, oil on canvas, 252.1 x 161.9 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace (from www.royalcollection.org.uk, accessed 15 October 2009). Fig. 6. Charles ADDAMS (1912-1988), “Ours is a very old family” (from Charles Addams, The World of Chas Addams, ed. Wilfrid Sheed (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1991), 92). Fig. 7. Sir William BEECHEY (1753-1839), Victoria, Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld, with her daughter, Princess Victoria of Kent, later Queen of Great Britain (1819-1901), 1821, oil on canvas, 144.8 x 113 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace (from Millar 1969, 2: no. 679). Fig. 8. Sir George HAYTER (1792-1871), Victoria, Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld, 1835, oil on canvas, 253.4 x 142.2 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace (from Millar 1992, 2: plate 245). Fig. 9. Sir George HAYTER (1792-1871), Victoria, Duchess of Kent (1786-1861), née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld, with her daughter, Princess Victoria of Kent, later Queen of Great Britain (1819-1901), 1834, pencil on paper, 52.4 x 41.3 cm, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Royal Library, Windsor Castle (from Millar 1995, 1:449).