Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/628

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Edward VII
608
Edward VII

photography, his portraits during boyhood up to the time of his marriage were for the most part based on photography, several excellent engravings being made from them. When about sixteen the prince was drawn and painted by George Richmond, R. A., and in 1862 a portrait in academical robes was painted by command for the University of Oxford by Sir J. Watson Gordon. Portraits of the prince in plain clothes were painted by S. Walton (1863) and Henry Weigall (1865). After the prince entered the army and joined the 10th hussars, he was painted in uniform several times by Winterhalter (1858), by Lowes C. Dickinson (1868), by H. Weigall (1870), and by H. von Angeli (1876). At the time of his marriage to Princess Alexandra of Denmark in 1863 a pair of portraits of the bridal couple were painted by Winterhalter. Among foreign artists who painted the Prince of Wales were Karl Sohn and Theodor Jentzen, but perhaps the most interesting was J. Bastien-Lepage, to whom the prince sat in Paris in 1880. During his later years as Prince of Wales the prince was not very frequently painted, except for official purposes, such as the portraits by Frank Holl, painted in 1884 for the Middle Temple and in 1888 for the Trinity House. A full-length portrait, painted by G. F. Watts, R.A., for Lincoln's Inn, was not considered successful, and was therefore withdrawn by the painter ; it is now in the Watts Gallery at Compton in Surrey. The most successful of official pictures was the full-length standing portrait by A. Stuart-Wortley, painted in 1893 for the United Service Club. W. W. Ouless's painting of the prince as commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron was executed in 1900. After the accession of King Edward VII to the throne in 1901, portraits of his majesty became more in demand. The official state portrait was entrusted to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Luke Fildes, R.A., and was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1902. The design for the portrait of the king on the coinage, postage-stamps, and certain medals was entrusted to Mr. Emil Fuchs. Subsequent portraits of the king were painted by H. Weigall (for Wellington College), Harold Speed (for Belfast), Colin Forbes (for the Canadian Houses of Parliament at Ottawa), A. S. Cope, A.R.A. (in Garter robes ; for Sir Ernest Cassel), P. Tennyson-Cole (for the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, by whom it was presented to the king ; a replica is in the possession of the Grocers' Company), James Mordecai (now in St. James's Palace), and Sir E. J. Poynter P.R.A. (for the Royal Academy). During the reign and after the king's death the number of pictorial presentments of every description increased to an indefinite extent. The king sat to more than one foreign painter. The greater number of the portraits mentioned here were exhibited at the Royal Academy.

Portraits in sculpture of King Edward VII as Prince of Wales or as king are also very numerous, whether busts or statues, from his childhood to his death, while posthumous busts continue in demand. He sat to both English and foreign sculptors, including Canonica, the Italian. A colossal bronze equestrian statue of the Prince of Wales as colonel of the 10th hussars, by Sir J. Edgar Boehm, was presented to the city of Bombay by Sir Albert Sassoon in 1878.

The pictures of public events in which the king played the chief part are very many, including his baptism in Painted by Sir George Hayter, Louis Haghe, George Baxter, and others ; his marriage in 1863, painted by W. P. Frith, R.A., and G. H. Thomas ; the paintings of the jubilee ceremonies in 1887 and 1897 ; the marriages of his brothers, sisters, and children ; ceremonies at Windsor Castle, such as 'The Visit of Louis Philippe ' and 'The Emperor of the French receiving the Order of the Garter' ; leading up to the events of his own reign, 'The King opening his First Parliament' by Max Cowper ; 'The King receiving the Moorish Embassy in St. James's Palace' by J. Seymour Lucas, R. A. ; 'The Coronation of King Edward VII' by E. A. Abbey, R.A., and like events. During the Indian tour of 1875 a number of incidents were recorded in drawings by Sydney P. Hall, W. Simpson, and other artists. Most of these remain in the royal collection. A valuable collection of original drawings for illustrated periodicals, depicting scenes in his majesty's reign, is in possession of Queen Alexandra.

King Edward was a good and willing sitter, but a difficult subject. Hardly any portrait gives a satisfactory idea of a personality in which so much depended upon the vivacity of the likeness. One of the best likenesses is considered to be that in the group of the Prince of Wales and the duke of Connaught at Aldershot, painted by Edouard Detaille, and presented to Queen Victoria by the royal family at the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Another good portrait is that in the group of Queen Victoria with her son, grandson, and great-grandson, painted by (Sir) W. Q.