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1 of 253523 objects
James Roberts (c. 1800-67)
Queen Victoria's Birthday Table at Osborne, 24 May 1855 drawn 1855
Watercolour and bodycolour | 20.7 x 17.4 cm (whole object) | RCIN 926521
James Roberts (c. 1800-67)
Queen Victoria's Birthday Table at Osborne, 24 May 1855 drawn 1855
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A watercolour view of the birthday table set up for Queen Victoria's 36th birthday in 1855, decorated with floral garlands and flags and laden with gifts; hanging above the table can be seen The Death of Francesco Foscari by Pickersgill (RCIN 406235) and on the table are two watercolours by Edward Corbould (RCINs 450631 and 451803), all of which were given to Victoria by her husband. On the right is a marble statue of a nymph by Lawlor (RCIN 75050). Signed at bottom left: JR Osborne.
Victoria and Albert commissioned and collected many watercolours throughout their marriage documenting aspects of their public and private lives together, including a sequence of watercolours depicting the temporary birthday tables created on the occasion of the Queen’s birthday, 24th May. From 1848 until Albert's death in 1861, Victoria spent all of her birthdays at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Every year a tradition which had begun in the Queen's childhood was observed. This was the arranging of a birthday table, laden with presents and embellished with floral arrangements, which by the second decade of her married life included more and more elaborate decorations; on her birthday in 1856 the Queen recorded that the room was “most tastefully decorated & arranged in quite a new way. The gilt cages with doves & the flags, had a charming effect.” Joseph Nash painted four depictions of these tables in the 1840s, but from 1851 James Roberts was given the commission. After Prince Albert’s death in 1861, the birthday tables were only photographed and never again painted.
This watercolour was originally interleaved by the Queen in her journal, which no longer survives.Provenance
Commissioned by Queen Victoria; Roberts was paid £35 on 9 July 1855 for drawings, probably including this one (RA PP2/12/5596)
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour and bodycolour
Measurements
20.7 x 17.4 cm (whole object)
Other number(s)
RL 26520
