Painting of the Day: A Theatrical Miniature, 1837

Scene from Goethe's Torquato Tasso:
The Meeting of Tasso and Leonora d'Este
Wilhelm Hensel, 1837
Oil on Card, Gold Frame
Presented by the artist to Prince Albert, 1843
The Royal Collection

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria both enjoyed the theater. Victoria particularly favored “foreign” productions—a trait for which she was often criticized by those who thought she should be more visibly supportive of English theater.


Among the many objects they collected, Victoria and Albert often obtained images which reminded them of their love of the theatrical. Prince Albert acquired this miniature painting in 1843. Painted in 1837, the painting depicts a crucial scene from Goethe’s Torquato Tasso—a drama about the life of oen of Italy’s most important Renaissance poets.