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. 14 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.