Sir William Ross (1794-1860)
Princess Elise of Hohenlohe-Langenberg (1830-1851) 1840
Watercolour on ivory laid on card | 9.1 x 7.3 cm (sight) | RCIN 420419
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Queen Victoria must have arranged for Ross to paint her niece in response to the dearth of suitable miniature painters nearer home, for Princess Feodora, the queen's half-sister, wrote to her on 15 January 1840: 'You want to have a portrait of Eliza but unfortunately for miniature there is no good portrait painter in Stuttgardt. I think you will find her pretty when you see her, she is a handsome girl, unfortunately that tooth disfigures her a little when she speaks or laughs' (RA VIC/Y 35/57). The result is a charming and successful portrait that shows her for the 'very handsome' girl she was 'with magnificent hazel eyes, fine features & a tall, slender figure' (RA QVJ: 14 August 1840). Years later, following Princess Elise's premature death from tuberculosis, Queen Victoria sent her grieving mother a bracelet containing a copy by Guglielmo Faija of this miniature by Ross. Princess Feodora responded: 'I think the miniature very good, and the setting so beautiful, the idea so beautiful … Only with tears I can thank you!' (RA VIC/Y 39/135).
Elise, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, eldest daughter of Ernest, Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and of Princess Feodora of Leiningen, half-sister of Queen Victoria. She died in Venice on 27 February 1851.Provenance
Commissioned by Queen Victoria in 1840
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Watercolour on ivory laid on card
Measurements
9.1 x 7.3 cm (sight)
10.2 x 8.5 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
Alternative title(s)
Eliza, Princess of Hohenlohe-Langenberg (1830-1851)