![Folding concertina album containing portraits of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Members of the Royal Family, Foreign Royals and celebrities French calf leather album by Maquet, with silver gilt clasps and green watered silk board lining, each leaf having four embossed paper windows, containing 100 albumen cartes-de-visite (RCINs 2915115-2915213).
From the 1840s Queen Victoria began to acquire](https://cmsadmin.rct.uk/sites/default/files/lead-image/trail/149552-1297438413.jpg)
Portrait Photographs in the Royal Collection
The Royal Family have collected, created and commissioned many portrait photographs
Queen Victoria, the Crown Princess of Prussia, Princess Alice and Prince Alfred in mourning
28 Mar 1862RCIN 2900545
In 1862, Queen Victoria (1819-1901) commissioned photographer William Bambridge (1820-79) to take a series of memorial portraits in remembrance of her late husband Prince Albert (1819-61) who died in December 1861. This portrait was taken at Windsor Castle and depicts Queen Victoria surrounded by three of her children. The group wears dark clothing, denoting their mourning. The portrait contains two likenesses of Prince Albert: a bust sculpture on a plinth and a photograph held by Queen Victoria. Beneath this photograph, Queen Victoria inscribed '[d]ay turned to night', a poignant message foreshadowing the continued period of mourning that dominated the Victorian era.