Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-73)
Lady Constance Leveson-Gower (1834-80), later Duchess of Westminster Signed and dated 1850
Oil on canvas | 53.7 x 43.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 400762
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Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death. Constance (1834-80) was the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland. In 1852 she married her first cousin the 3rd Marquess, later the 1st Duke, of Westminster, in the Chapel Royal in the presence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Queen Victoria wrote to Constance’s mother ‘Constance’s Picture has enchanted us; it is exquisite & I am delighted to possess this Portrait of your beautiful Child. There is a look of youth, of innocence & yet of dignity in the lovely original w.h I wished to see feigned in a Picture & Winterhalter has indeed succeeded, for it is one of his finest works’. Signed and dated: F Winterhalter / London 1850. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, July 1850.
Provenance
Painted for Queen Victoria
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
53.7 x 43.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
66.7 x 56.5 x 5.6 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)