Cousins, Samuel: Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII)

The five-year-old heir to the throne Albert Edward (1841–1910) gazes out of the picture with the self-assurance of a toddler. Queen Victoria had commissioned her son’s portrait from Franz Xaver Winterhalter, who completed and signed it in December 1846. Winterhalter depicted the boy completely free of the usual courtly traditions in a sailor’s suit, with his hands in his trouser pockets. Until then, such a lifelike portrait of the heir to the throne would have been considered impossible. In accordance with the informal subject matter of the painting, Winterhalter chose a loose, sketchy style of painting. In the etching, however, this style is gone. Despite the purely private character of the painting, it was soon published in the form of a print as part of Victorian imagery. Without exception, Victoria and Albert used their children as figures of sympathy to put the British monarchy in a positive light.

To the digitised copy