Collecting and Display

At a time when early Italian art was still often disparagingly regarded as 'primitive', Prince Albert's interest in acquiring such works – from 1845 - was very original. Although the Prince had travelled to Italy, the royal couple relied on a pool of English and foreign dealers, collectors and advisers, who helped to recommend and negotiate items for the royal collection.

Prince Albert's Writing and Dressing Room at Osborne House was hung with the highlights of his collection of early Italian panel paintings. They were all acquired between 1845 and 1847, many through Ludwig Grüner, Albert's artistic advisor.

A turn of events in 1847 had also seen the largest group of early Italian works – as well as Byzantine, Netherlandish, German and Russian – enter the royal collection. These one-hundred pictures came from Prince Ludwig Kraft Ernst von Oettingen-Wallerstein, a relative of Prince Albert. Unable to repay an outstanding loan, the collection reverted to Prince Albert as Oettingen-Wallerstein's guarantor. Many of these works were later donated to The National Gallery by Queen Victoria in 1863, after Albert's death.