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Queen Victoria with her four eldest children
c.1880 copy of original dated 8 Feb 1854Carbon print | 21.9 x 19.7 cm (image) | RCIN 2900013
In the early months of 1854, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert commissioned the photographer Roger Fenton (1819–69) to take a series of portraits of the royal couple and their children. This photograph is from a sitting in February.
The Queen is depicted surrounded by her four eldest children. She is posed and dressed, not as monarch, but as mother: a tartan shawl over her shoulders, a pair of scissors tied to her waist, and her right arm holding her daughter, Princess Alice.
annotation: The Prince of Wales, Princess Royal, Princess Alice, The Queen and Prince Alfred./ 8th February 1854./ By Mr Fenton. [beneath photograph]
