QUEEN VICTORIA | A collection of six etchings, 1841-45

QUEEN VICTORIA

A GROUP OF SIX ETCHINGS:

i) “Victoria”, 152 by 115mm. (375 by 272mm. sheet) signed and dated in etching “VR del & sclt – 22/2 1841”, [Scott-Elliot 35];

ii) “Victoria”, 110 by 165mm. (253 by 317mm. sheet), signed and dated in etching “VR del: 15/8 1841”, [Scott-Elliot 39];

iii) “Victoria jun. February 10 1843”, 150 by 185mm. (276 by 376mm. sheet), signed and dated in etching “VR 26/2 1843”, [Scott-Elliot 55];

iv) “Pussy | Before going to Bed”, 152 by 230mm., (289 by 429mm. sheet), signed and dated in etching “VR del & Scult 9/4 1843”, [Scott-Elliot 56];

v) “Victoria on Jan: 1 – 1844 in the Costume of the late Princess Royal after West”, 162 by 215mm., (284 by 373mm. sheet), signed and dated in etching “VR del: Feb: 1844”, [Scott-Elliot 57];

vi) Five Studies of the Royal Children, 150 by 232mm. (238 by 303mm. sheet), signed and dated in etching “VR del: 9/1 1845”, [Scott-Elliot 59];

[with additional lithograph:] vii) E. Dalton, after Queen Victoria. “Alfred & Alice”, 155 by 212mm. (280 by 380mm. sheet), signed in lithograph “Victoria R. Del” bottom left, “M&N. Hanhart, Lith Printers” bottom centre, and “E. Dalton Lith” bottom right

A talented amateur artist, Queen Victoria took up etching as a pastime hobby, having been introduced to the art by her husband soon after their marriage in February 1840. Their first etchings were made on 28 August 1840, Victoria later writing in her Diary that evening “We spent a delightful peaceful morning, - singing, after breakfast, and etching together – our 1st attempt!”

The royal couple etched frequently for about four years (guided by Sir George Hayter and later by Sir Edwin Landseer) the Queen being the more prolific, producing sixty-two plates as against the Prince's twenty-five. The plates were etched at Windsor Castle, sometimes with both Victoria and Albert working together on the same plate, and it is believed some proof impressions were pulled from a small press there. Some of the plates (though largely the proofs) were bit and printed by the Queen's dresser Marianne Skerrett, though most were re-bit and printed by Colnaghi. However, very few of each of the etchings were printed, the pastime being largely for the royal couple's own amusement; an occasional print and a very few sets, like the present, were distributed as gifts.

LITERATURE:

Aydua H. Scott-Elliot, "The Etchings by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert" in Bulletin of the New York Public Library, vol. 65, no. 3 (March 1961), pp. 139-153

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