COMPTON VERNEY.- Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park brings a captivating insight into Queen Victoria’s historic state visit to Paris with a new exhibition featuring forty-four watercolours generously loaned by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection – half of which have never been seen in public before.
In August 1855, with the Battle of Waterloo still vivid in the nation’s collective memory, Queen Victoria made a momentous state visit to Paris. It was the first by a British monarch in over 400 years, and was designed to cement the historic alliance between France and Britain in the Crimean War.
This exhibition organised by Royal Collection Trust in collaboration with Compton Verney displays the watercolours that were commissioned as mementoes of Queen Victoria's week in the French capital. The watercolours vividly capture the opulent surroundings and the pomp and pageantry of her visit, and provide a snapshot of art and taste during Victoria's reign. Generously loaned by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection, half of the works have never been exhibited before, and introduce the remarkable work of little-known French artists to today's audiences.
In 1854, the centuries-old antipathy between Britain and France came to an end in an alliance against Russia in the Crimean War. After decades of political turmoil, Napoleon III – nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte – was elected President after the revolution of 1848. Four years later he declared the creation of the Second Empire, with himself as Emperor – the sixth change of regime in as many decades. Queen Victoria's initial distrust of Napoleon III was overturned during a visit to Windsor in April 1855, when he and his wife, Empress Eugénie, captivated the young Queen with their charm and attentiveness. The return visit to Paris, arranged by the Emperor in August the same year, confirmed this new 'happy alliance' between France and Britain amid frequent reports from the Crimean front.
Landing at Boulogne on 18 August, Victoria spent the following nine days in Paris accompanied by Prince Albert and her two eldest children. Among the watercolours on display are those showing the arrival of the Royal Yacht into the harbour at Boulogne, from where the royal party travelled – in the age of steam – on recently-constructed railways into the centre of Paris. Another watercolour shows the cheering crowds that greeted the royal carriage as it entered the heart of the city, with flags, decorated buildings and troops in full uniform adding to the grandeur of the occasion.
The visit involved a packed schedule of ceremonial and cultural visits. It was an exciting time to be in Paris, coinciding with France's first international exhibition of arts and industry, the Exposition Universelle. Queen Victoria attended a gala performance at the Opera, and was guest of honour at two spectacular balls at Versailles and the Hôtel de Ville. Victoria also visited the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, where she marvelled at being able to stand “on the arm of Napoleon III, before the coffin of his Uncle, our bitterest foe! … and this very nephew, bearing his name, now my nearest & dearest ally!”
The watercolours that make up the exhibition were all presented to or commissioned by Queen Victoria as a souvenir of the visit. Queen Victoria was a passionate collector of watercolours, compiling a sequence of 'Souvenir Albums' throughout her marriage to Prince Albert that recorded their lives together through journeys, events and visits. At Christmas 1855, Napoleon III sent an album containing ten watercolours of the Paris visit to the Queen, who was thrilled with the 'ravishing drawings'. Queen Victoria commissioned a further fifteen watercolours to add to the sequence, including views of her apartments at Saint-Cloud on the outskirts of Paris – a palace that was razed to the ground during Napoleon III's downfall in the FrancoPrussian War of 1870. Another album containing nineteen scenes from a spectacular ball at the Hôtel de Ville on 23 August was sent by the Préfet de la Seine, Baron Haussmann, best known for the dramatic remodelling of Paris's streets that was well underway during Queen Victoria's visit. Queen Victoria was herself a keen watercolourist, and also on display will be a number of her own drawings made during the Paris tour.
Queen Victoria in Paris at Compton Verney is an absolute treat for art lovers, presenting this extraordinary moment in the history of Anglo-French relations. "This was a pivotal period in British and French history", says Rosie Razzall, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Royal Collection Trust, “After centuries of enmity, France and Britain were never again to fight on opposing sides. A visiting head of state was not received with such popular fervour in France until the Kennedys in 1961, and has been unmatched since."
All the watercolours in the exhibition are in superb condition, by virtue of their preservation on the pages of the Queen Victoria's albums. Preserving the sequence of these albums, Compton Verney’s curatorial team has hung the exhibition in chronological order allowing visitors to follow the events of the ten-day visit.
“These watercolours form a fascinating snapshot of official art and taste in the Second Empire,” says Compton Verney’s Curator, Penelope Sexton “It’s interesting to note that they were painted by French artists in a medium more closely associated with British art. They not only document a historic occasion, but also give us a rare, colour-soaked glimpse into treasured moments in Victoria and Albert’s life.”
This touring exhibition travels on to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; The Wilson: Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery; and the Bowes Museum, County Durham.
