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Queen Victoria

7 of 548 portraits of Queen Victoria

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Queen Victoria

by Aaron Edwin Penley
watercolour, circa 1840
16 in. x 13 3/8 in. (405 mm x 340 mm) uneven
Given by John Steegman, 1959
Primary Collection
NPG 4108

Sitterback to top

  • Queen Victoria (1819-1901), Reigned 1837-1901. Sitter associated with 548 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Aaron Edwin Penley (1806-1870), Painter and drawing-master. Artist or producer of 1 portrait, Sitter in 3 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Queen Victoria succeeded to the throne in 1837 and married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha in 1840. In this miniature, which dates from the early years of her reign, Victoria, wearing a Honiton lace bertha, is shown with a bust of Albert. She was devoted to her husband, with whom she had nine children, and was overcome by grief at his death from typhoid fever in 1861 at the age of 42. In the portraits of the Queen made both before and after Albert's death she is frequently shown with an image of her husband sometimes in the form of a bust and sometimes in the form of a bracelet inset with his portrait.

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Events of 1840back to top

Current affairs

Victoria marries her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; he is given the title of Prince Consort.
The Penny Black stamp is introduced by Rowland Hill; the first pre-paid, self-adhesive stamp, it marks the start of the modern postal system.
The start of the Irish potato famine, which by the time of its peak in 1851, had caused the deaths of one million, and contributed to the sharp rise of emigration from Ireland to England and America.

Art and science

Beau Brummel, the fashion leader responsible for sparking the culture of 'Dandyism', dies of syphilis.
The first stone is laid on the new Houses of Parliament, based on the gothic designs by the architects Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin. The old buildings had burned down in 1834, following a blaze caused by burning wooden tallies used by the Exchequer to calculate tax.

International

The Afghans surrender to Britain during the Afghan-British war (1839-42). The war was sparked by British fear over Russian influence in Afghanistan, with the British East India Company resolving to depose the Afghan leader, Dost Muhammad, who was insistent on Afghan independence, and restore the former leader Shoja Shah.
The Maoris yield sovereignty of New Zealand under the Treaty of Waitangi.

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