Victoria and Albert collected many watercolour views of their homes, inside and out. These were settings for both domestic and court life, and the watercolours offer a glimpse of royal family life – private spaces such as bedrooms and sitting rooms, and family celebrations of birthdays and christenings.

The royal parents were also eager to document their growing family, and they kept sculptors, painters and photographers busy recording the appearances and activities of their nine children as they grew. Victoria and Albert kept some of these watercolours in a separate sequence of family portrait albums.