Buckingham Palace: gardens, lake and Garden Pavilion

A watercolour of the gardens at Buckingham Palace, showing the Garden Pavilion, completed in 1845, in the distance on the right. Signed and dated (obscurely) 'C R Stanley 184...'. By the summer of 1840 Prince Albert had acquired for the gardens all sorts of animals and rare aquatic birds. Delia Millar (p. 823) has suggested that Prince Albert and Queen Victoria can be seen on the island at the centre, with nurses and a footman on the bank to the right. Between 1839 and 1845 Caleb Robert Stanley was extensively employed by the Queen to make watercolours of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, prompting the commencement of her Souvenir Albums (see RCIN 919891).