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.

Visit the Royal Collection

Photographic Technologies

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

    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]

    PreviousNext
    PreviousNext
    Policy links
    Royal Collection TrustIn Partnership with

    Royal Collection Trust is a charity caring for the Royal Collection and welcoming visitors to the royal palaces. We bring our shared history to life through world-class experiences that involve and inspire people, wherever they are. Income from tickets and retail sales helps us to conserve the Collection so that it can be enjoyed by everyone for generations to come.