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1 of 253523 objects
Mary Herbert (1817-93)
Killarney: the Upper Lake c.1845-61
Watercolour. bodycolour, scraping out and gum arabic | 29.5 x 50.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 929541
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A watercolour view of a mountainous landscape with the lake receding into mist in the centre and rocks in the foreground.
Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and some of their older children visited Ireland in the summer of 1861. They stayed for two nights at Muckross House in County Kerry, with Henry Herbert, the Lord Lieutenant, and his wife Mary. After her first drive around the lake, Victoria wrote that she was "enchanted with the extreme beauty of the scenery". Mary Herbert was an accomplished amateur watercolour artist, and the Queen admired the many framed watercolours by Mary that decorated her rooms in Muckross House. There are three watercolours by Mary in the Royal Collection (see also RCINs 920254 and 920256), but whether Victoria requested examples of her work from her host or Mary asked to present them to her is unknown.
This drawing is part of an album owned by Queen Victoria. This may be the 'most beautiful album of crimson velvet embossed with gold, and filled with beautiful paintings by various ladies' given to Princess Victoria on her fifteenth birthday by her governess the Duchess of Northumberland (Princess Victoria's Journal, 26 May 1834). If this is the identical album, Victoria must have removed some drawings and added others since the drawings in the present album date between 1833 and 1856.Provenance
Queen Victoria; by descent to HRH The Duke of Kent, by whom presented to the Royal Collection, 1990
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour. bodycolour, scraping out and gum arabic
Measurements
29.5 x 50.0 cm (whole object)
Other number(s)
RL 29541
