The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Queen Victoria 1819 – 1901 By Sir George Hayter (1792 – 1871) Oil on canvas, 1863 112 1/2 x 70 1/2 in. (285.8 x 179 cm) Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901) reigned from 1837 until 1901. Victoria was the daughter of the Duke of Kent and granddaughter of George III. Succeeding to the throne in 1837, she influenced foreign and domestic policies of successive governments, and her reign was the longest in British history. Queen Victoria came to the throne at the age of eighteen on the death of her uncle, William IV, in 1837 and was crowned queen on 28 June 1838. She wrote in her journal on the day of her coronation: ‘I really cannot say how proud I feel to be the Queen of such a Nation’, and some of this idealism is conveyed in Sir George Hayter's coronation portrait. Victoria described a small version of this portrait, which Hayter painted for her private apartments, as ‘excessively like and beautifully painted’. This replica version was commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1863 from the artist who painted the original in 1838. It was given to the National Portrait NPG 1250 The Victorians: Queen Victoria, 1 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Gallery in 1900. Other versions were produced for English embassies, another was given to the Crown Princess of Russia, and there is one in the Liverpool Town Hall. Under a huge canopy of vermilion red curtains heavily decorated with gold fringes and tassles, the delicate young Queen Victoria sits high on her massive throne. The armrests are carved in the form of large lion heads. Behind her a subdued red background shows a unicorn and a lion. Lifting the stem of the ceremonial Sceptre with the cross in her right hand, she points it in the direction followed by her own gaze up into the light shining from above to her right. The softly rounded face of the young Queen, with its long slender nose and rosebud lips, has a resolute expression. Her fine dark eyebrows are horizontal. On her head rests the Imperial State Crown. The crosses on top of the sceptre and crown symbolise the Sovereign’s temporal power under the Cross. Her heavy red and golden coronation robes are clasped across her chest by a band of gold. They spread over the lion-head armrests and trail onto the floor beside the throne. NPG 1250 The Victorians: Queen Victoria, 2 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Under the robe she wears a low-cut white dress like a wedding dress, transparent and layered. It is held in at the waist with a golden sash. Her satin white slippers are visible through the thin fabric of her long dress. They rest on a wide flat gold cushion footrest in front of the throne. At its two front corners the footrest has large fabric red rose blooms supported by ferocious looking lion paws. NPG 1250 The Victorians: Queen Victoria, 3 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Queen Victoria 1819 – 1901 NPG 1250 The Victorians: Queen Victoria, 4 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Queen Victoria 1819 – 1901 NPG 1250 The Victorians: Queen Victoria, 5 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria 1819 – 61 By Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805 – 73) Oil on canvas, 1867 95 x 61 3/4 in. (241.3 x 156.8 cm) Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria (1819 – 61) was the second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert married his cousin, Queen Victoria in 1840, and played an influential role in British public life. Noted as a patron of the arts, Prince Albert was largely responsible for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The original version of this portrait, showing Prince Albert wearing the Star of the Garter and the uniform of the Rifle Brigade, was one of the last portraits to be painted of him before his death from typhoid at the age of forty-two in 1861. This replica was commissioned by Queen Victoria from the original artist for the National Portrait Gallery. Prince Albert is forty years old in this portrait. Brightly lit in the foreground of a palace interior and standing tall, he thrusts out his chest in a commanding pose. Prince Albert wears the charcoal grey uniform of the Rifle Brigade with a black sword belt. His trousers are worn over black riding boots of NPG 237 The Victorians: Prince Albert, 1 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria which only the toes and the spurs are visible. He stands in left profile and turns his face to engage you with the clear and gentle expression of large eyes which are light grey-green. He has a very slender long straight nose in a large egg-shaped face with a strong clean-shaven chin. His top lip is hidden by a light brown centrally parted thick moustache. His face is framed by long sideburns and soft light-brown hair which is carefully curled forwards above his ears. Parted low on the left, long hair is brushed over the receding hairline of his high rounded forehead. The bright shape of his face stands out from the tall collar of his dark jacket. On his chest Prince Albert proudly wears the Star of the Garter over his heart. His full rounded chest and narrow waist convey energy and strength. Albert’s left elbow is held out wide to rest his hand on the hilt of a long sword standing at his side. The thumb of his right hand is hooked lightly on his belt at the waist. At the right hand edge of the picture beside him, a small table is loaded with plans and folders containing his projects. Behind him, on his left, stands a vast column, swathed with red fabric. Huge crimson and white regal robes, the robes of the Bath, which symbolise NPG 237 The Victorians: Prince Albert, 2 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria his purification to become a knight, are heaped up against the column and slope down behind Albert onto the floor at the other side. On the robes lie the chain and star of the order of the Bath and a field-marshal’s baton. NPG 237 The Victorians: Prince Albert, 3 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria 1819 – 61 NPG 237 The Victorians: Prince Albert, 4 of 5 The Victorians Introduction: Queen Victoria Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria 1819 – 61 NPG 237 The Victorians: Prince Albert, 5 of 5 The Victorians Expansion and Empire The Mission of Mercy: Florence Nightingale Receiving the Wounded at Scutari By Jerry Barrett (1824 – 1906) Oil on canvas, 1857 55 1/2 x 83 3/4 in. (141 x 212.7 cm) Florence Nightingale (1820 – 1910) reformed hospital nursing during the 19th century. After her training she was invited to take nurses out to tend the wounded in the Crimean War. Her sanitary improvements there diminished the spread of disease. She travelled to Scutari, a suburb of Constantinople in October 1854, where she transformed the appalling conditions at the Barrack Hospital. She looked after soldiers’ wives and children and wounded patients christened her ‘the Lady with the Lamp’. She was subsequently consulted by foreign governments at war as an authority on hospital administration and sanitation. In this complex narrative painting, Florence Nightingale is shown just over a third of the way into the painting from the left edge, standing under a window. She is surrounded by a semi-circle of people including many of her supporters, receiving casualties in the quadrangle of the Barrack Hospital. Close to us, situated in the right and left corners of NPG 6202 The Victorians: Florence Nightingale (Painting), 1 of 9 The Victorians Expansion and Empire the picture Turkish people gaze at the scene unfolding before them. On our left with his back towards us, a richly dressed man in a gold and red turban, red jacket and voluminous white pants or sherwal rests his right hand on a child’s shoulder. The fabric of the child’s pink skirts shimmers in the sun. Just visible on the man’s right is a figure holding some prayer beads behind his back. At the extreme right there are two veiled women in dark purple-blue robes, the one closest to us wears pointed pale yellow boots. At the right edge of the picture, visible through a wide arched gateway stretches the River Bosphorus painted a greyish green blending to ultramarine at its furthest bank. Beyond, the city of Constantinople is hazy in the distance beneath the expanse of a clear blue sky. A queue of the sick and wounded climb up from a makeshift landing stage and enter the quadrangle. Dramatic lighting brightly illuminates the curve of the left edge of the gateway and the face of an infantryman raised aloft on a stretcher. He points with his right hand towards Florence Nightingale, the red sleeve of his uniform contrasting with the dull green of a wooden door behind him. NPG 6202 The Victorians: Florence Nightingale (Painting), 2 of 9 The Victorians Expansion and Empire The infantryman looks down towards a wounded soldier slumped between an orderly and a doctor, his bold pointing gesture offering reassurance to the wounded soldier. The doctor, holding a leather bag and a metal helmet in his left hand, looks gravely over the head of the soldier towards the orderly on the soldier’s right.