Queen Victoria

Object Type

The occasion for the commission of this formal marble bust is unknown; the piece was acquired by the Museum in 1963. In addition to her other decorations, the Queen is shown wearing the badge of the Imperial Order of the Star of India and the Royal Red Cross (instituted in 1883).

People

Count Gleichen (Viktor Ferdinand Franz Eugen Gustav Adolf Constantin Friedrich Prinz von Hohenlohe-Langenburg) was the son of a half-sister of Queen Victoria. He served in the Royal Navy, and was promoted Admiral in 1887. After losing all his fortune in a bank crash, he became a professional sculptor and was accorded a studio in St James's Palace. He had been a pupil of William Theed (1804-1891), one of the sculptors favoured by Queen Victoria. Gleichen exhibited frequently at the Royal Academy, and his daughter Fedora, Countess Gleichen, also became a sculptor.

Materials & Making

Marble busts were among the most popular and prestigious types of public portrait undertaken in Britain during the Victorian period. The marble, a relatively expensive material, was imported, usually from Italy via The Netherlands, since there are no marble quarries in this country. The skills needed to carve marble might also be learned abroad, where an aspiring artist would probably gain his most important training assisting an established sculptor.