Albert, Prince Consort
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Albert, Prince Consort” now? Victoria and Albert Museum, British Galleries, Room 123, London. Yes, on view now. Checked September 25, 2026.
Closed· opens at 10:00 AM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
Object Type
This portrait bust of Prince Albert (1819-1861) was commissioned in 1840 by Queen Victoria, whom he had recently married. In 1841 the sculptor Edward Hodges Baily (1788-1867) showed a bust of Prince Albert ('unfinished') at the Royal Academy, London, presumably this piece. In 1848 it was bought by the collector Joseph Neeld (1789-1856), whose collection of Victorian sculpture was later dispersed. The bust was acquired by the Museum in 1964 from a London dealer.
People
Read on
Edward Hodges Baily was born in Bristol in south-west England and began his career modelling wax portraits. He later trained under the sculptor John Flaxman (1755-1826) and enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 1808. His public sculpture in London included reliefs on the Marble Arch and perhaps most famously the figure of Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805), for the column in Trafalgar Square. He also executed a large number of portrait busts.
Places
Joseph Neeld amassed an important collection of British works of art, including Baily's bust of Prince Albert, after he inherited œ900,000 from his maternal grandfather. He bought Grittleton House in Wiltshire, where his collection was housed. James Thomson (1800-1883) designed this house in a revived Romanesque style; numerous paintings hung in the great Staircase Hall there. As well as the bust of Prince Albert, Neeld owned a figure of Eve Listening to the Voice by Baily.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- A.34-1964
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
