Album including one pencil drawing and four etchings.

"DRAWING AND ETCHING, WHICH INTERESTS AND AMUSES ME SO MUCH"

Pencil sketch inscribed "Victoria Regina delt. A.D. 1839" measuring 185 by 150mm and four original etchings after Queen Victoria (3 etched by Victoria, the other by Albert) and a lithograph by L. Dalton after a drawing by Queen Victoria. Folio. Contemporary half red morocco over pebbled cloth, later dust jacket, a.e.g. Windsor Castle, 1839 -

An intimate gift from the young Queen Victoria to her Lady-in-Waiting, Francis Countess of Gainsborough (1814-1885). In 1839, she described her as "almost the best of all my Ladies … so sensible, kind, and merry."

 

Queen Victoria was an enthusiastic amateur artist and took up etching in 1839, introducing it to her husband the next year. Taught by Edwin Landseer and George Hayter, the royal couple produced 87 etchings, with proofs produced on a small press at Windsor Castle. "The etchings offer a picture of the interests of the royal couple in their early married years. The prince had a keen interest in art and the Old Masters; he introduced Queen Victoria to German romantic literature and Goethe and Schiller in particular. Prince Albert read to the Queen from Schiller's works. Their family absorbed them and the children and dogs play an important role in the etching subject-matter" (The British Museum). That influence is shown here with "Mignon" being a scene from Goethe.

 

The signed drawing is possibly a preparatory study for Scott-Elliot 3, being an etching of Ada with two figures above, the figure at the top left being a woman in profile with a veil. The four etchings are as follows: "Victoria [Princess Royal with her nurse]" (Scott-Elliot 35); "Victoria [Princess Royal seated with a ball]" (Scott-Elliot 41); "Mignon" (Scott-Elliot 78); and "3 women standing two holding masks" (Scott-Elliot 24). The lithograph is titled "Victoria, Albert & Alice" and is dated 1845.

 

While examples of Victoria's art and etchings appear on the market from time to time, it's rare to have an album including both.

 

Provenance: gift from Queen Victoria to her Lady-in-Waiting, Francis Countess of Gainsborough; Sotheran's 1904; private American collection.

 

Scott-Elliot, A.H., "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.

 

Stock Code: 245899