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Learn more about the photographic techniques available in the mid-19th century

Roger Fenton (1819-69)

Queen Victoria with her four eldest children c.1880 copy of original dated 8 Feb 1854

Carbon print | 21.9 x 19.7 cm (image) | RCIN 2900013

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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.