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| The Victoria & Albert Museum |
Painted in 1887 for her Golden Jubilee, this unusually casual portrait of Queen Victoria is the work of Heinrich Anton von Angeli. The painting, which is on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum from HRH Prince Michael of Kent since 1984 is considered one of the finest works of the Austrian portraitist (1840-1925) and was greatly favored by Queen Victoria and her family.
Victoria loved the portrait so much that it assumed the place of honor at Windsor Castle which had previously been occupied by the famous portrait by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, another favorite of the Queen.
This painting is actually the second of two identical portraits painted by Von Angeli. The painting was so favored that Queen Victoria asked the artist to create a close copy for her Jubilee in 1887. The original portrait was created in 1875.
During the sittings with Von Angeli in 1875, the Queen described the portrait in a letter to her daughter : “It is quite ‘en face;’ hands crossed before me as I generally stand; my usual Evng. Cap - & a black satin dress cut square as I wear them in the winter.” Queen Victoria further described the painting with delight, saying, that it is “absurdly like” and “a marvellous likeness - as if I looked at myself in the glass.”
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