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Title:
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Queen Victoria as "Queen of Peace"
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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This coloured marble statuette of Queen Victoria as "Queen of Peace", the central feature of a chapel-like enclosure in the Bayswater studio of the photographer, Camille Silvy, was described by Charles Blanc, in an article for the Gazette des Beaux Arts in 1864 (vol.XVI, 1864, pp.566-567). He wrote, recalling his visit to the Silvy studio, which had taken place in 1862, "the Parian marble in which the figure is carved has entirely disappeared under a layer of bronzed colour, and it has lost the brilliance of its spangles which normally lend it vibrancy. The throne in antique red marble, has been covered with mosaics and enamels, and the work overall produces the effect of a jewel, of unusually large dimensions". The statuette was surrounded by tapestries ornamented with royalist devices and lit by stained glass windows. When the photographer Nadar visited Silvy's studio later in the 1860s, the marble figure had been replaced by a solid silver equestrian statuette of the Queen, for which the photographer had paid Marochetti a sum equivalent to 30,000 francs. Nadar records that the enclosure could be viewed through a grill, but only the Queen herself (and presumably the photographer) was permitted to penetrate into the interior (Nadar, Quand j'étais photographe, Paris, 1900). However, though Prince Albert and Princess Alice were both photographed by Silvy in his studio, the Queen never visited it or took advantage of the privilege of visiting this royalist shrine.
Happily Silvy's day-books, now held at the National Portrait Gallery, include this excellent photograph of the statuette (Journal, 5, no. 5568).
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Material(s): |
Marble
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
Carved |
Genre: |
Portrait Statuette (seated)
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Colours: |
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Year: |
1862 |
Height: |
0 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
2188 |
Acc. No.: |
2188 |
Col. No.: |
2188 |
Number of views: |
3265 |
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