Bonhams 1793 : John Haslem (British, 1808-1884) Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901), Empress of India (1876-1901), wearing white décolleté dress with lace trim, red sash of the Order of the Garter, blue and gold braiding, diamond pendant necklace, pendent earrings and George IV's State Diadem, her dark hair parted and loosely upswept

John Haslem (British, 1808-1884) Queen Victoria (18191901), Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901), Empress of India (1876-1901), wearing white décolleté dress with lace trim, red sash of the Order of the Garter, blue and gold braiding, diamond pendant necklace, pendent earrings and George IV's State Diadem, her dark hair parted and loosely upswept

21 Nov 2012 14:00 GMT London, Knightsbridge
Fine Portrait Miniatures
Back to auction 19943

John Haslem (British, 1808-1884)

Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837-1901), Empress of India (1876-1901), wearing white décolleté dress with lace trim, red sash of the Order of the Garter, blue and gold braiding, diamond pendant necklace, pendent earrings and George IV's State Diadem, her dark hair parted and loosely upswept.
Enamel, rectangular ebonised and gilt-wood frame.
Oval, 88mm (3 7/16in) high

Sold for £2,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

The present lot derives from Franz Xaver Winterhalter's (1805-1873) full-length portrait of Queen Victoria in regalia, dated 1843 (O. Millar, The Victorian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 1992, p.287, no.811). In both likenesses the Queen is seen sporting the George IV State Diadem, first worn by the monarch during his coronation of 1821 and which consists of 1333 diamonds and 169 pearls. The scheme for the ornament was probably drawn up by Rundell's chief designer, Philip Liebart (J. Roberts, Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London, 2002, p.231-2, no.154). The diadem has subsequently been associated with several female members of the British royal family, including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who is depicted wearing the circlet on the ten pound sterling bank note now withdrawn from circulation. Today, the Diadem is worn primarily for the State Opening of Parliament. In Haslem's portrait, the necklace and earrings composed from the diamonds gifted to Queen Victoria in 1839 by Sultan Mahmúd II are also discernible.

Another version of this miniature by Haslem, now in the Royal Collection, portrays the Queen wearing a white dress with the blue Garter riband and sapphire brooch given as a love token to the monarch by her husband the day before their wedding (V. Remington, Victorian Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2010, vol.I, p.278, no.523). A further seven miniatures after the original Winterhalter portrait currently reside in the Royal Collection; they pertain to the following artists: John Simpson (no.795), an unknown artist of the 19th-century British School (no.985) and five by William Essex (nos.345-349) (Ibid, vol.II).

A slightly larger miniature of the Royal Collection type, also by Haslem, was sold at Sotheby's, London, on 10 March 1994 (lot 49) and at these salerooms on 28 June 2012 (lot 152).

In the present lot, Queen Victoria is seen once again as the twenty-four-year old new mother and wife first captured by Winterhalter. Having succeeded to the British throne in 1837 aged just eighteen, the new queen married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819-1861) in 1840 thus beginning a mutual partnership of artistic exchange which would endure for two decades, only to be abruptly curtailed by the devastating death of the Prince Consort in December 1861. A shared appreciation for art and design lay at the heart of the royal couple's marriage whilst the Queen's lifelong interest in dynastic and familial blood ties spurred her inexorable accumulation of portraits, the acquisition of which is arguably her definitive characteristic as a royal collector.