Guglielmo Faija (1803-73)
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857) c.1854
Watercolour on ivory laid on card | 4.5 x 3.6 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 420233
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Guglielmo Faija was employed to produce copies in miniature for Queen Victoria on a regular basis from 1845 onwards. Faija based this work on a portrait miniature by Queen Victoria's leading court miniaturist, Sir William Ross, of the Duchess of Gloucester, known from an engraving published by Colnaghi & Puckle in 1841.
Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, fourth daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte, married in 1816, at the age of forty, her cousing William Frederick, 2nd Duke of Gloucester. She outlived all her siblings and was mourned by Queen Victoria on her death as 'the last link, which connected us with a bygone generation.... She had become like a grandmother to us all, from her age, and from her being the last of her family' (RA Queen Victoria's Journal, 30 April 1857).Provenance
Purchased by Queen Victoria from the artist in 1854 for 16 gs (RA VIC/ADD T/232/56)
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour on ivory laid on card
Measurements
4.5 x 3.6 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
5.6 x 4.7 cm (frame, external)
4.3 x 3.5 cm (sight)
Other number(s)
Vic Min : Remington, V., 2010. Victorian Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen – Vic Min 412Cust 1910 : Cust, L., 1910. Windsor Castle: Portrait Miniatures, London – Cust 1910 10/9.
