Bidspirit 拍卖 | Queen Victoria (1819–1901) – Rare

Queen Victoria (1819–1901) – Rare Early CDV Portrait, Dated 1860 – A Youthful Portrait of the Queen, One Year Before the Death of Prince Albert - A rare early Carte-de-Visite (CDV) portrait of Queen Victoria (1819–1901), bearing an old manuscript date of 1860 beneath the image. The Queen is portrayed bust-length in three-quarter profile, facing right. She appears notably youthful in comparison with the familiar images of her later reign, her hair arranged back from her face and wearing a dark dress with a white collar and dark ribbon around her neck. The restrained composition, without elaborate studio scenery, gives the portrait a particularly delicate and intimate character. The 1860 date gives the photograph particular historical interest. It portrays Queen Victoria before her long widowhood, approximately one year before the death of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, in December 1861. Following Albert's death, Victoria adopted prolonged mourning dress and her public appearance changed dramatically, eventually creating the sombre, widowed image that became the most familiar representation of the Queen. The present photograph therefore preserves a strikingly different and earlier image of Queen Victoria, before the decades of mourning and before the austere appearance of her later reign became inseparable from her public identity. The lower margin bears an old pencil inscription referring to the Queen, together with the clearly written date “1860.” The reverse is plain and bears no photographer's backmark.