The vague gaze of the Queen, who it was said appeared sad until the end of her life, and her absent seriousness – a reflection of her withdrawal into herself – dovetails with the compassionate, attentive and submissive gaze of the daughter kneeling before her mother. This touching portrait in the shape of a medallion expresses intensely but also presciently the intense relationship linking Victoria and Beatrice. In this painting, the Royal Order is artificially turned sideways to face the viewer to remind the viewer of the painful loss that weighed on the Royal family. After the death of Prince Albert, the double portrait was modified so that it was no longer Victoria’s profile in front but that of her late husband. Victoria had created the “Victoria and Albert” in 1856 on the occasion of the communion of her first-born, Victoria, Princess Royal, known as “Vicky”. Victoria also changed the design of her Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, the double cameo portrait of the Royal couple mounted on a cream silk ribbon which was distributed by the British sovereign to female members of the Royal family and the court as well as to other monarchs (for the most part from northern lands).
Her own George Cross (the emblem of the oldest order still used and the highest in Great Britain) is however barely visible against the black garment. Indeed, from 10 March 1863, the date of the marriage of her eldest son, the Prince of Wales and future Edward VII, she had decided to wear her husband’s blue riband of the Order of the Garter. In this picture, beyond her mourning attire, Victoria also exhibits the painful ever-present absence of her husband by the insignia she is wearing. However, so devastated was she by her loss, Queen Victoria wore black for the rest of her life. The usual prescribed mourning period was one year. Since the death of her husband the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1819-1861), at the age of 42, on 14 December 1861, Queen Victoria had been in a state of mourning and was systematically depicted (both in paintings as well as in photographs) wearing a long black dress and either a white or a black veil. Judging from the height and maturity of the young princess, the work can probably be dated to the later 1860s. This portrait by an unknown artist represents Queen Victoria (1819-1901) with the youngest of her nine children, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom (1857-1944).
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