Mohammed: A Nubian Signed and dated 1877
Oil on canvas | 101.6 x 77.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 403642
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Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, the Princess Royal, painted this portrait of a Nubian man called Mohammed while in Berlin. She wrote to her mother that the room she had had to use as a studio had very bad light, so she felt the painting had turned out very badly. She was delighted, however, when Queen Victoria was pleased with the portrait, and confessed she had sometimes worked four hours at a time in order to get it finished. She described the sitter as ‘indeed splendid…only 24 and just come from Algiers with a painter called Prof Gentz – who only paints oriental subjects. – I was so struck when I saw this man I thought I would try & do a study for you, but it is alas nothing but a mere big sketch & very hasty … it is done without any help and therefore full of mistakes.’
Signed and dated: Victoria. 1877.Provenance
Given to Queen Victoria on her birthday by Victoria, Princess Royal, 24 May 1877
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
101.6 x 77.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
124.6 x 101.2 x 4.9 cm (frame, external)
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