This website presents our knowledge and research on this important aspect of the Royal Collection. As of April 2026 it will not be regularly updated and new research on this topic will sit within the main website.

Portraiture

Prince Albert was an early adopter of portrait photography

AFTER DR ERNST BECKER (1826-88)

'The Prince of Wales and Prince Alfred with their Playfellows in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace'

1889 copy after an original of June 1854

Carbon print | 11.8 x 14.1 cm (image) | RCIN 2906526

Photograph of a group portrait taken in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Standing, from left to right are: Vesey Dawson, Frederick St Maur, Stanley Dawson, Maitland Dawson, John Athole Farquarson, Henry Farquarson and Charlie Phipps. Seated, from left to right, are: Prince Alfred, later Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, Lord Arthur Clinton and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales later King Edward VII.
  • Creator(s)

    After Dr Ernst Becker (1826-88) (photographer)

    Gustav William Henry Mullins (1854-1921) (photographer)

    Subject(s)

    Captain Charles Edmund Phipps (b. 1844)
    Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg & Gotha (1844-1900)
    King Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom (1841-1910)
    Henry Farquharson (1842-81)
    Arthur Clinton (1840-70)
    Charlie Phipps
    Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom (1819-1901)
    Vesey John Dawson
    Frederick St Maur
    Maitland Dawson
    Stanley Dawson
    John Atholl Farquharson (1837-88)
  • annotation: The Prince of Wales & Prince/ Alfred with their Playfellows/ in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace/ June- 1854./ 1. Hon. V. Dawson 2 seat. Alfred 3. Fred: St Maur 4. Ld. Arthur Clinton 5. Stanley Dawson 6. Pce of Wales 7. Maitland Dawson/ 8. John Athole Farquarson 9. Harry Farquarson 10. Charles Phipps [Underneath the image ]

    annotation: Reproduced & Printed in carbon by Mullins 1889 [mount, lower left and lower right ]

  • 11.8 x 14.1 cm (image)

    28.2 x 22.9 cm (page dimensions)

  • Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, and Prince Alfred with their Playfellows in the Gardens of Buckingham Palace, June 1854 [Photographic Portraits. Vol 1/59 (1853-1857)]

  • Acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

  • Subject(s)
    • Places
      • Europe
        • Great Britain
          • England
            • Greater London [England]
              • London [Greater London]
                • City of Westminster [London]
                  • Buckingham Palace
                    • Buckingham Palace Gardens
    • People
      • Children
      • Boys
    Object type(s)
      • visual works
        • photographs
        • albums
          • photograph albums