'Unmistakeably Visible:' Queen Victoria in Frith's "Marriage of the Prince of Wales"

Abstract

When William Powell Frith was asked to paint the marriage of Prince Albert and Princess Alexandra in 1863, it was impressed upon him that the “great object with the Queen herself” was that she be “unmistakably visible” in the composition. In this paper, I offer a close reading of the resulting painting and its reception, arguing that Victoria’s decision to commission the picture from Frith lent a very particular set of contexts to the form and content of her visibility. In 1863, Frith was at the height of his fame for this modern life subjects, Ramsgate Sands, Derby Day and The Railway Station. By commissioning the “successor” to this series, Queen Victoria placed herself quite deliberately into the very visible context of “modern life,” both in the painting and at the Academy. In Frith’s ingenuous composition, Victoria sits high above the crowd, clearly visible to the viewers of the picture, presiding over her citizenry and the continuation of her dynasty, even if within the space of the picture itself only the loving few can see her. Represented as both aloof from and fully present within the contemporary moment, Queen Victoria is unmistakably visible both as the vigilant monarch and the secluded widow. (This paper is part of the special issue edited by Michael Hatt and Joanna Marschner.)