The life-size female figure, naked from the waist upwards and with the legs covered by drapery, is seated on the integral, naturalistic base in the form of a rocky shore, leaning to her left, supported by her extended left arm. Her right arm is raised with the elbow bent, and in her right hand she holds a long trident of burnished brass. The shaft of the trident is terminated with a spherical knop, and the in-curved prongs ornamented with scrolls. Her head, with her hair gathered at the back and with flowers at the front, is inclined downwards. The base is carved with sea creatures including three fish, a crab and empty shells, and with waves which lap against the side. The insides of the open shells are brightly polished. Incised on top of the base: E. WOLFF / FC. ROMAE. 1841

Emil Wolff ’s water-nymph, one of the mythical daughters of Nereus and Doris, was the first work of ‘ideal’ sculpture to be purchased by the young Queen Victoria. It was ordered by Prince Albert in 1840. The prince had sat to Wolff for a bust (RCIN 1527) during his visit to Rome in 1839. The Nereid was modelled in that year and the prince may well have seen it in Wolff ’s studio. It proved to be a considerable success. The first marble version was made for the Prussian courtier and music administrator Friedrich Wilhelm, Graf von Redern. Prince Albert’s was the second of four slightly varied versions. The third version, commissioned by Tsar Nicholas I through his son-in-law Duke Maximilian Eugen von Leuchtenberg, and dated 1843, incorporates a rock lobster in place of the fish. The whereabouts of a fourth
version, formerly in the possession of Prince Yusupov, are unknown.

Wolff was in London in August 1841. Prince Albert sat to him at Windsor for a second bust, in ‘Grecian’ armour (RCIN 2098), and Wolff also modelled the bust of the infant Princess Victoria (RCIN 45140). It may be that his visit to England was timed to coincide with the arrival of the Nereid, for on 18 August Queen Victoria wrote to the Duchess of Sutherland, her Mistress of the Robes: ‘We are daily expecting the Naiade by Wolfe’. On its arrival the statue was immediately placed in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. After a short period in the Silk Tapestry Room it was moved to the Marble Hall on the
Ground Floor, together with its companion, Steinhäuser’s Siren (RCIN 2040). Both were mounted on new pedestals of grey marble designed by Frank Baines of the Office of Works.

Text adapted from Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King (2025)