Franz Xavier Winterhalter exercised the enviable profession of court portraitist of Louis-Phillipe, King of the French. He became the go-to portraitist of the European haute-noblesse of his day, and most famously painted the official portraits of HRM Victoria and HRM Albert.
Winterhalter was also trusted with more personal images, like this portrait the Queen wanted as her husband’s 24th birthday present. According to the Royal Collection Trust‘s Victoria and Albert: Art & Love exhibition: The Queen wrote: ‘He thought it so like, & so beautifully painted. I felt so happy & proud to have found something that gave him so much pleasure’ (Journal, 26 August, 1843). The painting was hung in Prince Albert’s Writing Room at Windsor. Several copies were made in miniature – a particularly suitable format for such an intimate image. The Queen later referred to it as ‘my darling Albert’s favorite picture’ (Journal, 2 January, 1873).“
“The only detail of ornament is the purple ribbon and the jewellery – a pair of simple drop earrings and a heart-shaped pendant on a gold chain. This pendant may be the glass heart-shaped locket containing a lock of Prince Albert’s hair which the Queen wore ‘day and night’ before her marriage (Journal, 12 November, 1839). It had been a gift from Queen Louise of the Belgians. Such a jewel would have been a touching symbol of the Queen’s devotion to her husband in a picture meant purely for his eyes.”
Eighteen years later, Victoria becomes the Queen of an Empire.
(1859)
I also like these two portraits by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, not of Her Majesty:
First Russian aristocrat Leonilla Ivanovna Baryatinskaya, Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, painted in a Neoclassical style with a hint of Orientalism
Who is Barbara Dmitrievna Mergassov Rimsky-Korsakova? Often said to be the wife of composer Rimsky-Korsakov, according to at least some of contemporary sources call his wife Nadezhda. I, for one, could see Barbe as the musical Scheherazade.
I like this Scheherazade by the USSR State Symphony Orchestra – 1969
THE INACTIVIST 