Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

In May 1893 Queen Victoria wrote to her eldest daughter that ‘[Fräulein] Swoboda who paints so beautifully & has done again some lovely things – is also painting me & I think it will be v[er]y good.’ The Queen was pleased with the finished portrait, judging it ‘very successful’, and Josefine Swoboda subsequently exhibited a version of it at the Watercolour Club in her native Vienna.

Swoboda worked for Victoria for almost a decade, having probably been introduced to the monarch by her brother Rudolph who received many royal commissions. Whereas Rudolph worked in oils, Swoboda’s Royal Collection series of portraits are all in watercolours and the majority are of female subjects. They form an intimate group of representations of some of those closest to Queen Victoria – her children and grandchildren, other relations and women who served her at court (an example is shown here).