Works by/donated by Queen Victoria included in this catalogue
Albert [Prince] after Victoria [Queen] Islay 1840 {1893} NGV [ET]
Albert [Prince] Head of a Dachshund 1840 {1893} NGV [ET]
Albert [Prince] after Cranach Frederick III 1840 {1893} NGV [ET]
Albert [Prince] after Voordecker Pigeons 1841 {1893} NGV [ET]
Albert [Prince] after Carracci (Annibale) (?) Eagles 1841 {1893} NGV [ET]
Albert [Prince] after Landseer (?) Two Peasant Women 1842 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen] Princess Adelheid 1840 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen] Victoria, Princess, with her nurse 1841 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen] Victoria, the Princess Royal, seated 1841 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen]: Two Studies of the Princess Royal 1843 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen] Victoria on Jan.1 1844 {1893} NGV [ET]
Victoria [Queen] Prince Alfred 1848 {1893} NGV [ET]
Portraits of Queen Victoria in the pre-Felton collection
Herkomer Queen Victoria {1892} NGV [PA]
* Noble [after] Queen Victoria {c.1860} Loc? [SC]
Summers (Charles) Queen Victoria {1878} Melb.Showgrounds [SC]
Although she never visited Australia, Queen Victoria presided over the development of the Melbourne gallery during almost the entire pre-Felton period, and several images of her were included in the collection, as noted above.
The twelve etchings she presented to Melbourne in 1893, produced by her and Prince Albert during the early years of their marriage, reflect their shared artistic interests and intimate early family life. The couple were married in February 1840, and Albert evidently took the lead in matters artistic, under the guidance of several professional artists; both Sir George Hayter and Sir Edwin Landseer taught them the technique of etching.
In 1847, Victoria took legal action to stop unauthorized publication of these prints, intended only for private viewing. However in her later years she donated impressions to several institutions, including the NGV. While some of Melbourne’s impressions are now in a mediocre state (owing particularly to excessive exposure to light, ironic evidence of their previous popularity), they remain evocative relics of the era. Shortly after their arrival in Melbourne, they were exhibited in the Vestibule of the NGV, together with Herkomer’s recently-completed portrait of the Queen (see NGV 1894).
“At Home,” an exhibition staged at the British Museum in July-Sept.2019, included the Museum’s impressions of some 20 etchings in the group (donated by King George V in 1926). The events surrounding the royal injunction to stop publication of the private etchings in 1847 was alluded to in an episode of the recent TV series Victoria.
Refs.
For Melbourne’s impressions of the etchings, see NGV 1894, pp.68-69 (III.Vestibule, nos.1-12), and the gallery’s online catalogue
For a general account of the etchings, see https://britishmuseum.tumblr.com/post/137824823117/queen-victorias-etchings; and for the events surrounding the attempt to publish them in 1847, see e.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/26/secret-collection-queen-victorias-personal-etchings-caused-privacy/ and https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a26291518/queen-victoria-sketches-scandal-victoria-season-3-episode-6/ (websites all accessed 8 May 2020). For the British Museum exhibition, “At Home: Royal Etchings by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert,” see e.g. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7072493/Rare-etchings-Queen-Victoria-Prince-Albert-set-display-time.html (article published 27 May 2019)
Peter Ackroyd, The History of England, Vol. V: Dominion, Macmillan, 2018, provides a stimulating recent survey of the general history of the Victorian era, including various insights into the Queen’s character and significance, and the complexities and contradictions of the period