(Photo:
Royal Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020)
RC IN 34260
Victoria of
Saxe Coburg Gotha was the daughter of Queen Victoria's uncle, Prince Ferdinand
of Saxe Coburg. In 1840 she married Louis, duc de Nemours, the second son of Louis
Philippe, who on the death of his brother, Ferdinand duc d'Orléans, in a carriage
accident in 1842, became heir to the French throne. Following the Revolution of
1848, the Duke and Duchess of Nemours accompanied Louis Philippe into exile in
England, taking up residence with him at Claremont House (Surrey). The two
Victorias were bosom friends, and Queen Victoria was devastated when "dear
Victoire" died unexpectedly on 10 Nov. 1857. She wrote in her journal:
"Dear Victoire was so dear, a perfect angel, the comfort and happiness of
the whole family, the sweetest, loveliest, gentlest being, - quite a sister to
us both. We bore the same name, were Brides, at the same time & married at
the same time; her four children were born at the same time as ours, - we had
been most intimate, & ever since 48, had so often seen her". On the
following day, she went to take a last look at her dead cousin, and was struck
by her resemblance to Marochetti's effigial statue of Charles I's daughter,
Princess Elizabeth, which she had recently commissioned for St. Thomas's church
in Newport (Isle of Wight). "No words can picture such a scene of
desolation & misery, & yet, there was great peace! I was reminded of
Marochetti's monument of Pss Elizabeth - an awful tragedy." It was not
long since she and other members of the Royal Family had seen the Princess
Elizabeth for the first time, installed in the church, on 15 Dec. 1856, so it
would still have been fresh in her mind. On 1 Dec. 1857, she gave Marochetti a
death mask, drawings and pictures of Victoire de Nemours, and it was presumably
in response to a request from her that Marochetti "promised to make a bust
for us". Among the drawings would probably have been one she herself had
done of the Duchess from life, which the bereaved husband had agreed was a good
likeness. The next day, she and Prince Albert took Louis de Nemours to view it,
and the Queen recorded that he was "much pleased" with it. Presumably
the model was completed when the Queen and Princess Alice again visted Marochetti's
studio on 17 March 1858, when the Queen pronounced the bust
"admirable". (all the references here are to Queen Victoria's
Journal, which can be accessed online)
A marble of
the bust, purchased by the Queen in August 1858, was once in the Royal Collection. Now it
seems that only this plaster is in the collection. However, a photograph taken
by Livingston in 1874, is included in an inventory of sculpture at Windsor.
The Duchess
of Nemours was buried in the church of St Carlo Borromeo, Weybridge, and much
later an effigy of her was sculpted for the church by the eminent French
sculptor, Henri Chapu, between 1881 and 1883. Queen Victoria saw and described
this in her journal on 25 July 1884. She found it "most beautiful".
In 1993, following the removal of the Duchess's body to the Orleans family
mausoleum at Dreux, Chapu's effigy was sold at Sotheby's and acquired by the
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
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