The Datebook datebook_autumn2019_digital_ARTWORK | Page 16
By Richard Fitzwilliams
Victoria: A ROYAL CHILDHOOD
Victoria: WOMAN AND CROWN – KENSINGTON PALACE
Richard Fitzwilliams
We also see how conscious
Victoria was of her image. The
first exhibition, Victoria: A Royal
Childhood, tells the story
simply, using portraits of the
major figures in her life,
costumes and artefacts such
as her dolls, as well as showing
how she took pleasure in
music and dancing. Emphasis
is also laid on her fiery
temperament. Events
inexorably led to her
Coronation and there is a
portrait of her first Prime
Minister Lord Melbourne, who
became a father figure to her.
The second section in a
different area of the Palace,
Victoria: Woman and Crown,
attempts to cover her 63-year
reign. Unfortunately the limited
space means exhibits are
wore, was procured and the
exploitation of India under the
British are dwelt on to the
exclusion of the wider Empire,
which is ignored with not even
a map of it on show.
Space does not permit an
examination of her deep
friendships with unusual figures
such as the dour Scot John
Brown and the Indian, Abdul
Karim, known as “the Munshi”,
but it is emphasized that her
personally liberal views on race
were not shared by most
Britons at that time.
Her devotion to Prince Albert
was such that she wore black
after his untimely death and
theirs is surely one of the great
royal romances, which is
Queen Victoria by Winterhalter 1856.
Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019.
T
hese two exhibitions
commemorate the
200th anniversary of the
birth of Queen Victoria
who gave her name to an
age. They are staged at
Kensington Palace, where
she was born and where
she led a desperately
unhappy childhood. It is
therefore possible to
reimagine the suite of
rooms she and her
mother, the Duchess of
Kent, occupied which means
you walk with history. She
was never allowed to be
alone until she became
Queen at the age of 18,
having to abide by the
“Kensington System” by
which her mother,
dominated by the
unscrupulous adventurer
Sir John Conroy whom she
hated, sought to control her.
Kensington Palace exterior. © Historic Royal Palaces
desperately squashed as the
intention is both to chronicle
the period and to make it
relevant to visitors from all
backgrounds today. Almost
inevitably it is far too cluttered.
Victoria A Royal Childhood - Victoria at Play. © Historic Royal Palaces.
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THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK
Victoria’s reign is synonymous
with British imperialism and
poems, critical of the British
Empire from the local South
East Asian community and from
London University, are on
display. The way the Koh-i-Noor
Diamond, which she proudly
obviously highlighted here.
These are not scholarly
exhibitions but their subject is
fascinating and films and
television have brought Victoria
closer to a new audience in
recent years. A visit to these
exhibitions will hopefully inspire
those interested to learn more
about this extraordinary
monarch and the period in
which she lived, which, as is
emphasized here, had values
that are so very different from
ours today.