Photo: Royal
Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
RC IN 41535
Princess
Gouramma was the daughter of the deposed Rajah of Coorg, brought to London by
her father in 1852, where she was accommodated in Buckingham Palace, after being
presented to the Queen. She was baptised and given the Christian name Victoria,
the Queen standing Godmother to her. This is indicated in the bust by the cross,
suspended from a ribbon round her neck.
In 1860, she married a British army officer, but died of consumption in 1864,
at the age of only twenty-three.
This is one
of two busts of Indian favourites of the Royal Family, which Marochetti
executed in 1856. The other was of Maharajah Dalip Singh, who it was hoped might
be interested in marriage with Princess Gouramma. In the case of both busts,
colour was introduced, and the person responsible for applying it was William
T. Millais, brother of the Preraphaelite painter. News would have reached
England by this time of the Tinted Venus, which John Gibson was working
on in Rome, and which would be shown by him at the London International
Exhibition of 1862. However, Marochetti's approach was much more thoroughgoing
and naturalistic. An article in the Times of 16 April 1856 describes various works in progress in Marochetti's
studio. Amongst them was the bust of Princess Gouramma, in which, the reporter wrote,
the Baron has carried to a point much further than has yet been attempted the
use of colour in sculpture". The article continues, "Not content to
touch a few ornaments with colour, the artist has boldly painted the face, the
hair, the dress to the life, using watercolour, of course, so that through this
transparent medium the rich effect of the marble may not be lost. Although in
several details the work is open to exception - so open, indeed, that the
artist is himself preparing to make the necessary changes - yet, as a first
attempt, it must be pronounced eminently successful, and hereafter it will have
a strange historical interest in the Royal collection. Perhaps a part of its
success is owing to the dark complexion of the Princess; but complexion has
nothing to do with the eye, and we can conceive of nothing finer than the eye
as represented in this bust. Think what the eye is generally in sculpture; here
it is perfectly transparent, and the spectator even fancies that he can trace
on it the shadow of the eyelash quivering. It is probable that the artist will
not stop at this point, but make still further advances in the same direction;
and it need scarcely be added that all who are interested in art will be
anxious to know how he succeeds".
Henry Greville
met Marochetti at a dinner at Holland House, and on 26 August 1856, wrote to
the painter Frederic Leighton, that Marochetti considered those English
sculptors who were unable to accept colour in sculpture were imbeciles. He went
on, "Gibson is the only one who admits it, but even he will not go to
Marochetti's lengths". (Mrs Russell Barrington, Life, Letters and Work
of Frederic Leighton, London, 1906, vol.I, p.261). Evidently Queen Victoria
did not disapprove of the colour in her version of the bust, as she did in the
case of Marochetti's bust of Dalip Singh, where she had him remove it.
(For a full
account of these and other experiments by Marochetti in the colouring of
sculpture, see Caroline Hedengren - Dillon, Polychromy in the Work of Baron
Carlo Marochetti (1805-1867), on the Victorian Web)
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