Memorialising Albert
Prince Albert's lasting influence can be seen in many mediums
In Memoriam
1863-64Oil on canvas | 91.4 x 120.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external) | RCIN 405162
In this unfinished group portrait, Queen Victoria is sitting at a table with Princess Alice and Princess Helena standing behind her. The Queen rests her hand on the head of Princess Beatrice, who kneels at her feet and looks up at the bust of Prince Albert. Prince Arthur stands, in Highland dress with his arm round the base of the bust. Prince Leopold and Princess Louise kneel to place something, perhaps a wreath, at the foot of the pedestal.
On 25 February 1863, the Queen wrote that she saw
Mr Noel Paton, the Scotch painter, who has painted such beautiful pictures, & who is to do a small "In Memoriam" of me with Alice & the 3 youngest children
Queen Victoria's Journal, RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 25 February 1863 Princess Beatrice's copies
Paton was prevented by illness from completing the painting. After the artist's death, his executors agreed to sell the preliminary portrait drawings for the painting to King Edward VII. At the same time they offered the unfinished painting as a present. The artist's son noted:
No man was ever more devotedly loyal than my father and the late Queen's appreciation of his work was I believe its only reward that he set much store by.
