A watercolour of a view of the thronged harbour of St Pierre, with the Royal Yacht on the right: Queen Victoria and the Prince Albert landing on the quay are met by the Governor with a Guard of Honour; with the church and town of St Pierre behind. Signed and dated, lower left: Naftel 1846.

Queen Victorian and Prince Albert visited Guernsey for the first time in August 1846. This watercolour by Naftel, a local artist, is very similar to a depiction of the royal couple’s arrival published in the Illustrated London News - it may be that Victoria and Albert saw the newspaper coverage and then commissioned this watercolour for their sequence of View Albums. The watercolour differs in one significant aspect from the print in the Illustrated London News, in that Victoria and Albert are seen from the front rather than from behind.

This watercolour was originally mounted in View Album IV. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert compiled nine View Albums during their marriage. These albums contained watercolours and drawings documenting their life together and were arranged in chronological order. The albums were dismantled in the early twentieth century and rebound in new volumes both in a different arrangement and with additional items, but a written record of their original contents and arrangement still exists.