Photo: Royal
Collection Trust/ © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
RC IN2080
Princess
Mary of Cambridge, who in 1866 was to marry the Duke of Teck, was a cousin of
Queen Victoria. In 1856, when this bust was executed, she was in her early
twenties and considered by all to be of marriageable age. She recorded
sitting to Marochetti for the first time in her own diary: "June 9, 1856 - About half past
eleven Lady Marian Alford arrived to take me to Marochetti's, and I sat and
stood for my bust from about 12.30 till nearly 4.30. Lily [the Honble. Lily
Montagu] and Lord Northampton keeping me company part of the time, and dear Lady
Marian the whole, whilst Lord and Lady John Russell's visit to the studio
occasioned a short pause in the sitting. I then had a delightful tête-à-tête
with Lady Marian at her fairy-like abode, where we partook of a very late
luncheon". On 29 July, she wrote, "Lady Marian Alford chaperoned me to Marochetti's for the final sitting. Mama [Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge] joined me there later, and pronounced the bust to be 'an excellent likeness'". (A Memoir of Her
Royal Highness Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, based on her private
diaries and letters, London 1900, vol.I, pp.244 and 250)
These diary
entries have led to the assumption that the bust was simply a commission from Lady
Marian Alford. However, the apparent coincidence of a visit to the studio by
Lord John Russell, one of the chief abettors of Italian unification in this
country, should alert us to the probability that something of wider diplomatic
significance was taking place. What was really afoot has been revealed in a
recent article by Alessandra Guerrini ("A diplomatic tour of 1855: Queen
Victoria, King Victor Emmanuel and Carlo Marochetti", Burlington
Magazine, Nov. 2013, pp.774-778). In 1855 Victor Emmanuel, who would later
become king of the unified Italy, but who, at this stage, was King of Sardinia,
had made an official visit to London, accompanied by Cavour and Massimo d'Azeglio.
The king's wife, Archduchess Adelaide of Austria, had died earlier in the year
of gastroenteritis, and it was thought that he might be looking to re-marry.
There were some who thought that for him to marry Princess Mary of Cambridge,
who he had met several times during the visit, and to whom he had clearly taken a
fancy, might be beneficial to all parties. The following year, while Marochetti was
in Turin negotiating his contract for the memorial to Victor Emmanuel's father,
Carlo Alberto, the King asked him to sound the Princess out about his
prospects. Clearly, back in England, the sittings for a bust provided the ideal
opportunity for Marochetti to accomplish this matchmaking mission. The result
however was that the Princess let it be known that she was not interested, an
outcome which Marochetti, along with a number of other influential people deeply
regretted. The fullest account of this affair can be found in Sir H. Maxwell, The
Life and Letters of George William Frederick, 4th Earl of Clarendon, London,
1913, vol.II, pp.124-126. The Princess recorded her impression of Victor Emmanuel in her diary entry for the day on which she took leave of him, at the end of his London visit, on 4 December 1855. "His visit", she wrote, "has been quite an affair of state and grandeur. In this pageantry His Majesty must have found himself rather out of place, as he is naturally very shy, which he conceals under a brusque manner. He is also far from prepossessing in appearance, but remarkably soldier-like, frank, and, I believe, clever". (A Memoir, see above, p.229)
The bust is
a rather relaxed and intimate image, showing its subject with a disordered pearl
necklace, not a hint of drapery, and a mass of roses woven into her hair at the
back. The marble of it in the Royal Collection was originally in the collection
of Lady Marian Alford, but is thought to have been added to the Royal
Collection by Queen Mary, the sitter's daughter, who always had a fondness for
it.
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