'Queen Victoria at the statue of the Prince Consort at Coburg, 26 August 1865'

Glass plate negative of a watercolour (RCIN 914747) showing the market place at Coburg with Queen Victoria and all nine of her children in front of the recently unveiled statue of Prince Albert. The queen is depicted placing a bouquet at the foot of the Prince's statue. 

Queen Victoria attended the unveiling ceremony of the statue on 26 August 1865 - 26 August was Albert's birthdate - with the Prince's brother Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and all her children. She wrote in her journal that it was the first time that all the royal children had been together since 1858, when the eldest (Victoria, Princess Royal) married - "& now they were all together, & the head of all was missing! Dreadful" (Queen Victoria's journal, 26 August 1865).

Artist George Housman Thomas, who had worked extensively for the royal couple, was commissioned by the Queen to travel to Coburg to record the ceremony.

The glass plate negative has been photographed showing the coated side and therefore the image appears laterally reversed. A print from this negative does not seem to exist in the Collection.