An early royal Carte-de-Visite (CDV) portrait depicting Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and Prince Albert, Prince Consort (1819–1861) together, by the celebrated British photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1813–1901). The royal couple are presented in a comparatively intimate studio composition. Queen Victoria stands at left wearing an elaborate full-skirted dress with a geometric pattern, while Prince Albert stands beside her, one hand placed at his waist and the other positioned behind the Queen. The composition presents Victoria and Albert very much as a couple rather than as separate formal state sitters. At the lower right of the photographic image appears: “MAYALL FECIT. MARCH 1st.” The image belongs to Mayall’s celebrated royal photographic sittings with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1861. The date gives the portrait particular historical resonance: 1861 was the final year of Prince Albert’s life, the Prince Consort dying on 14 December of that year at only forty-two. The photograph therefore belongs to the final period of photographic portraits showing Victoria and Albert together during the Prince Consort’s lifetime. Following Albert’s death, Queen Victoria entered her prolonged period of mourning and her public image changed dramatically. These portraits preserve the royal couple as they appeared during the final months of their life together. Mayall was an important figure in the development of photographic portraiture in Victorian Britain, and his royal portraits played a significant role in disseminating images of Victoria, Albert and their family through the increasingly popular Carte-de-Visite format. The reverse is plain and bears no photographer’s backmark, as photographed. An appealing and historically resonant royal photograph combining Queen Victoria and Prince Albert together, photography by Mayall, and the date 1 March 1861 – the final year of Prince Albert’s life.
Auction 01: Auction 01 – Historical Letters, Documents & Autographs — Melis Antiques & Art