Event Item: 00181

'Victoria & Albert: Art & Love'

Exhibition: 19th Mar 2010 to 31st Oct 2010

Source: http://www.royalcollection.org.uk

This major exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace is set to challenge the popular image of Queen Victoria. 'Victoria & Albert: Art & Love' will focus on the period of Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert, from the time of their engagement in 1839 to the Prince's untimely death in 1861. Through 400 works from across the entire Royal Collection, including paintings, drawings, photographs, jewellery and sculpture, Queen Victoria emerges as a romantic and open-minded young woman, a far cry from the dour widow of 40 years with which we are so familiar.

The exhibition is the first ever to examine the couple's shared enthusiasm for art, as well as their individual tastes. For Victoria and Albert, art was an important part of everyday life and a way they expressed their love for each other. Around a third of the objects in the exhibition were exchanged as gifts between the couple to mark special occasions. They range from the simple and sentimental, such as a beautiful set of jewellery in the form of orange blossom, to superb examples of early Italian painting, including Bernardo Daddi's The Marriage of the Virgin, given by the Queen to the Prince for his birthday in 1846.

Jonathan Marsden, Deputy Surveyor of The Queen's Works of Art and the exhibition's chief curator said, "This exhibition will overturn the popular image of Queen Victoria and reveal an energetic, passionate young woman who delighted in the company of artists, musicians and performers, and who idolised the opera and ballet stars of the time. Commissioning and exchanging art was at the very heart of Victoria and Albert's relationship. Such a shared enthusiasm for collecting has not been seen at any other stage in the history of the British crown."

'Victoria & Albert: Art & Love', The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London