Portraits of notable people

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s photograph collection includes a range of works depicting significant nineteenth-century individuals and personalities, including artists, actors, politicians and musicians. Prince Albert organised a selection of these portraits into albums, including albums entitled Theatrical and Musicians and Artists.

The portraits purchased and collected by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria give a sense of their views and tastes on art, theatre and music and the actors and singers they admired. Through their collecting, it is clear they admired the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind and the actors Adelaide Ristori (1822-1906) and Thomas Frederick Robson (c. 1822-64).