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1 of 253523 objects
John Gibson (1790-1866)
Queen Victoria (1819-1901) 1844-47
Marble | 170.2 cm (whole object) | RCIN 2071
Guard Chamber, Buckingham Palace
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A full length marble statue of Queen Victoria in classical dress wearing coronet chased with dolphins. Her head turned slightly to her right, coiled and plaited hair, weight carried on her left leg so that her right is slightly bent and her right heel slightly lifted. In her right hand she holds a laurel wreath which she is about to bestow as the fount of honours, and in her left a scroll, emblematic of the laws. On her right arm is a bracelet. The corners of her toga are fringed and sculpted with sprays of national emblems (rose, thistle and shamrock) for England, Scotland and Ireland.
Queen Victoria commissioned this sculpture of herself after seven years on the throne, aged 25, and intended it for a domestic (albeit royal) rather than a public setting. After 133 years of male sovereigns the royal portrait had become formulaic to the point of fossilisation. Gibson's portrait is distinctive for two important reasons which both provoked controversy when the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy. It was commissioned as a pendant to Emil Wolff's statue of Prince Albert as a Greek warrior and Gibson was told his work should be 'like a Greek statue'. Having finished the marble, Gibson decided to colour certain parts of it, a breach of convention in which the queen, kept informed of progress from the sculptor based in Rome, was cautiously acquiescent. The border of the robe was pale blue and red, the sandals, tassels and parts of the tiara tinted pale yellow.
The original request for a bust quickly extended into a statue, classically draped, over several sittings in nine days.
Upon receipt prince Albert received Gibson at Buckingham Palace and informed him that the queen was 'very much pleased' with the statue, as he was himself, 'colour and all' The queen recorded her own reactions on 26 June 'The attitude, drapery & everything is beautiful, like an Antique, but Albert is not quite satisfied with the likeness, through the figure is quite correct & gives the impression of youth & yet great dignity, as well as of the stature of a small person.'
Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love (2010) and Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty The King (2025).Provenance
Commissioned by Queen Victoria in person in October 1844. The full-size plaster model was complete in May 1845, the final marble delivered 1847 and placed in the Guard Chamber, Buckingham Palace.
Exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1847.
A drawing of the statue by Paolo Guglielmi was bequeathed to Gibson.
Gibson's portrait by John Partridge shows him with a small model for this work (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).
A second version was commissioned in 1849 (RCIN 41020) and placed at Osborne House. -
Medium and techniques
Marble
Measurements
170.2 cm (whole object)
Category
Object type(s)
Alternative title(s)
Victoria Regina
Place of Production
England
