print
- Museum number
- 1902,1011.10598
- Description
-
Portrait of Princess Louise, almost whole length, in profile to right, wearing a white satin dress trimmed with ermine, with a tulle veil held in place by a diamond diadem, leaning on chair to the right; from photograph by Downey; bordered by red and gold frame.
Photomechanical woodburytype, colour-printed.
- Production date
- 1870s
- Dimensions
-
Height: 88 millimetres (photo)
-
Width: 53 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The Princess may be in fancy dress, possibly for the Waverley Ball at Willis’s Rooms, King Street, St. James’s on Thursday in the week of 7–15 July, 1871. The Waverley Ball was held to raise funds to complete the Walter Scott Monument in Edinburgh and the guests were asked to attend as characters from his novels. According to a report in the London Gazette on 6 July, Princess Louise, the Marquess of Lorne and Prince Arthur attended the ball with the Prince and Princess of Wales. An example of this Woodburytype of Princess Louise in the National Portrait Gallery was published 15 April, 1876 by Arthur James Melhuish (NPG x8751). Melhuish published a Woodburytype on 21 July, 1874, from a photograph taken in 1871 of the Princess of Wales dressed as Mary Queen of Scots for the Waverley Ball (NPG x23492). That particular publication anticipated the Marlborough House Ball, given by the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1874, at which the Princess wore the Mary Queen of Scots costume altered to represent a Venetian lady. It is not obvious why this portrait of Princess Louise was published in 1876; at the Marlborough House Ball Princess Louise dressed in blue velvet as the Queen of Hearts to take part in the ‘Card’ Quadrille. For a companion portrait of Prince Arthur, 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn dressed as Bonnie Prince Charlie by Melhuish, also published in 1876, see: 1902,1011.10557
William and Daniel Downey were based in Eaton Square in London, travelling to Balmoral and Frogmore to photograph members of the royal family.
Cataloguing supported by the Pilgrim Trust
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1902
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1902,1011.10598