Royals around the world

Paintings, sculpture and in real life!

Copy of Winterhalter's painting of the young Victoria and Albert with their children. The original is hanging in Buckingham Palace and you can't photograph it! The copy is at Osborne House, initially it was the other way around, once Osborne was no longer a royal residence, the copy was placed there.

Royalty is something that sparked an interest in history when I was a teenager, and there's a lot of art associated with royal families. In some cases I was struck by being able to see 'in real life' a painting that I had only seen in books, such as the young Victoria and Albert with their family picture. Other times there were sculptures, placed in years gone by, to show loyalty to a monarch, or just a connection to a particular royal.

I did make a pilgrimage to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, as it was Queen Victoria's home, there was a lot of art relating to her large family. Basically family pictures, but in grand style.

Osborne House, Isle of Wight

Empress Frederick, Queen Victoria's oldest child also named Victoria, with her husband and 2 oldest children. The boy would grow up to be Kaiser Wilhelm III.

Victoria's youngest daughter Beatrice, holding a picture of her father Albert who died when she was four years old.

Victoria's oldest son, who became King Edward VII, with his wife Alexandra and there two oldest sons, Albert Victor(who died young) and George, the future King George V.

The young Queen Victoria, as she lived to her 80s, most of the images of Victoria are of her in old age, it's nice to see the young queen.

London, U.K.

After Albert's death Victoria had a monument erected to him.

The Albert Memorial

Then after Victoria's death, her son, the new King Edward VII commissioned a memorial to her that was placed in front of Buckingham Palace.

Queen Victoria Memorial

Trooping of the Colour

For anyone who wants to see royals in real life, then the Trooping of the Colour in London is where to go. It's normally held the second Sunday in June.

Camilla and Kate

Berlin, Germany

Frederick the Great statue on Unter den Linden. The statue had been moved several times and after the reunification of Germany was restored and placed back in what had been its original position.

Trieste, Italy

Trieste had been a major city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and so has statues that hark back to that time. 

The Empress Elizabeth, the beautiful Sisi. 

Emperor Maximillian, brother of Franz Joseph he was invited to be emperor of Mexico, once in Mexico he found that he didn't have the support of the majority of the people and was he executed. Trieste is where he made his home, the castle Miramare.

Versailles, France

Painting of Queen Marie Antoinette in the Palace of Versailles.

Australia

As one would assume from the fact that Australia was a former British colony, there are a few royal statues around! Victoria has two states named after her, Victoria and Queensland, but it's her aunt that has a city named for her.

 Quite a modest little statue of Queen Adelaide in the Adelaide Town Hall.

There's a larger statue of Queen Victoria as she presides over the square named for her, it's the geographic centre of the city of Adelaide.

This statue of Queen Victoria in Sydney has an interesting backstory. The owners of the restored Queen Victoria Building searched internationally in the 1980s for a Queen Victoria statue. This statue originally had stood outside the Legislative Building in Dublin, Ireland until 1947 and then it was placed in storage. The developers of the QVB searched former British colonies until this one was found, it was given to the people of Sydney 'on loan 'till recalled' in 1987 and placed outside the southern exit.(It's still there, hasn't been recalled!)

Edward VII

  Despite Australia becoming a country in its own right just before Queen Victoria's death, there were still royal statues going up to display loyalty to the throne. Here's Victoria's son, King Edward VII on North Terrace in Adelaide. (He's now somewhat obscured as there's a tram stop right in front of him!)

Edward on a horse. King Edward VII in the King's Domain (his!) in Melbourne.

Statue of Edward VII in Kings Park, Launceston Tasmania.

I was surprised that I could find a few statues of Edward VII in cities around Australia, he was only king for 10 years. I had expected to find more statues of his mother but that wasn't the case.

Painting of Edward VII in the David Roche Foundation Museum in Adelaide.

George V

Edward VII's son George V, George wasn't supposed to be king but his oldest brother died and so he stepped up one place and became king. This statue is in the parklands in Adelaide.

George V in George Square in Brisbane.

Catherine the Great

Painting of Catherine the Great of Russia, in the David Roche Foundation Museum, Adelaide. Purchased for the Russian Room.

Desiree Clary, Queen of Sweden. As a young woman she had been engaged to Napoleon Bonaparte, but he broke off the engagement to marry Josephine. Desiree eventually married Jean Bernadotte who was elected to be heir to the childless Swedish King. Bernadotte became king in 1818 and founded the dynasty (with Desiree!) that have ruled Sweden since then.

Queen Marie of Romania

This de Lazlo painting of Queen Marie was exhibited with the Cartier exhibition held in the Australian National Gallery. The sapphire pendant she's wearing was in the exhibition. Queen Marie was a grand-daughter of Queen Victoria and was married off to the heir to the Romanian throne when she was 17 years old.

Singapore

Statue of Queen Victoria in the Peranakan Museum, the statue was gifted by the Singaporean Chinese community for the Queen's 50th Jubilee in 1887.