The Death of Count Mansfield (1580-1626) 1839
Oil on panel | 83.5 x 65.3 x 2.1 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 403743
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Ernest, Count of Mansfeld (d. 1626), was a soldier on the protestant side in the Thirty Years’ War. He had been defeated at the battle of Dessau and set off for Vienna a small band of officers. On 29 November 1626 he felt that death was approaching him and took off his helmet and cuirass. Two companions supported him, and he died standing upright with his sword in his hand. Prince Albert and his brother Ernest had visited Queen Victoria at Windsor in October 1839, and the Queen wrote to her uncle, ‘Albert's beauty is most striking, and he is so amiable and unaffected—in short, very fascinating; he is excessively admired here’. She proposed to Albert, and they were married in February 1840. This painting arrived on 31 December 1839 when the Prince had returned to Coburg to make preparations for the wedding. Queen Victoria noted enthusiastically that it was ‘so well painted & shows such talent’.
Provenance
Queen Victoria's acquistions 1839, Nov; recorded hanging in the Queen's Dressing Room (Room no 213) at Windsor Castle in 1878
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Medium and techniques
Oil on panel
Measurements
83.5 x 65.3 x 2.1 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
119.3 x 102.0 x 9.0 cm (frame, external)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
The Death of Count Mansfield, 29 November 1626