Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Home Beautiful: The Queen’s Dressing Room at Windsor Castle, 1847

The Queen's Dressing Room at Windsor Castle
Watercolor, 1847
Crown Copyright
The Royal Collection
Image Courtesy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II



Queen Victoria often commissioned favorite artists to create topographical studies in watercolor of the interiors of the Royal residences to serve as records of the appointment of the interiors. The Royal Collection contains many such watercolors from Buckingham Palace, Balmoral, Sandringham, Osbrone House, York Cottage and Windsor Castle. Some of them are unsigned.

This is one of them. We don’t know the artist who created this handsome record, but we do know that it dates to 1847. The sketch shows Queen Victoria’s private dressing room in Windsor Castle. Let’s just think about that fact for a moment. Can you picture Her Majesty Queen Victoria seated at her vanity? Can you see her donning her mourning black in that lovely little room? This is, perhaps, our only opportunity to see such a personal space.



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