Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1844-1921) 1848-49
Oil on canvas | 47.7 x 38.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 403609
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Winterhalter was born in the Black Forest where he was encouraged to draw at school. In 1818 he went to Freiburg to study under Karl Ludwig Schüler and then moved to Munich in 1823, where he attended the Academy and studied under Josef Stieler, a fashionable portrait painter. Winterhalter was first brought to the attention of Queen Victoria by the Queen of the Belgians and subsequently painted numerous portraits at the English court from 1842 till his death. Prince Philip, his brother Augustus, and their parents, Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Princess Clémentine d’Orléans, had come to London from France in 1848. They stayed in Buckingham Palace and Franz Xaver Winterhalter painted portraits of the children. Queen Victoria wrote to the King of the Belgians: ‘The little Coburgs are very gt. Amusement; Gusty is a darling…; Philippe is a very naughty but clever Boy’. Philip made a career in the Austrian army and married Princess Louise, eldest daughter of Leopold II. Inscribed on the back with the names of the artist and sitter and the date, 1848.
Provenance
Painted for Queen Victoria in 1849; recorded in the Queen's Sitting Room at Buckingham Palace in 1868
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
47.7 x 38.0 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
67.7 x 58.6 x 5.1 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1844-1921), when a child