1447
Everyday Life 1842–1969 (exhibition catalogue), Toronto:
Art Gallery of Ontario, 2003.
Christopher Pinney, Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian
Photographs, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Glenn Willumson, ‘The Getty Research Institute: Materials for
a New Photo-History,’ History of Photography, 22: 1 (Spring
1998), 31–39.
VICTORIA, QUEEN AND ALBERT,
PRINCE CONSORT
Victoria and Albert played an important role in the devel-
opment of photography, most especially through being
infl uential patrons during the 1850s. Upon the death
of the Prince Consort in December 1861, Hugh Welch
Diamond summed up their contribution to establishing
the respectability of photography:
As a manipulator in photography the Prince Consort was
unsurpassed: in his practice of the art he was greatly as-
sisted by his former librarian Dr Becker.. .Her Majesty
is also a very good photographer. Certainly the art has
no reason to complain of want of patronage and support
from the Court; so extensive is the collection of negatives
which have been taken by and for the Royal family, that
it is necessary to have a private printer to keep them and
print them when copies are wanted (“The Late Prince
Consort and Photography,” Photographic News 24 Janu-
ary 1862: 39).
Victoria and Albert’s support existed fi rmly within
the tradition of royal patronage of the arts. At the same
time, though, as early practitioners, they epitomise the
upper-class amateurs to whom photography was an af-
fordable pastime. Royal support thereby stemmed from
both a personal interest in the medium and a belief in
its artistic and technological value.
The fi rst ever photographs of the British monarchy
were two daguerreotypes of Prince Albert that were taken
by William Constable at Brighton on 7 March 1842.
Later in the same month, Albert visited Richard Beard’s
daguerreotype studio in Parliament St., London. Other
photographs taken during the 1840s included a series of
daguerreotypes of the royal family by William Kilburn.
Kilburn’s success led to him being appointed “Photog-
rapher to Her Majesty and His Royal Highness Prince
Albert.” Many photographers subsequently went on to
hold offi cial warrants from the Court, including George
Washington Wilson (1873) and André Disderi (1867), W.
& D. Downey (1879), and Alexander Bassano (1890).
Titles like “Photographer-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty”
were attenuated versions of the appointments tradition-
ally held by court painters: they demonstrate that tradi-
tional models of patronage continued to exist alongside
the burgeoning mass market for royal photographs.
It was not until the early 1850s that Victoria and
Albert became signifi cantly engaged with photography.
Prince Albert’s interest in the union of art and manufac-
ture fed naturally into his enthusiasm for the medium.
Victoria’s interest was more commemorative, founded
around the camera’s ability to record family occasions
and events. Many early royal photographs were taken
by Dr Becker, Prince Albert’s librarian and a found-
ing member of Royal Royal Photographic Society of
London. Becker taught Victoria and Albert the calotype
process and, although none of their photographs have
survived, substantial amounts of photographic appara-
tus were supplied to Windsor Castle. A darkroom was
built at Windsor in 1854 and, in 1857, the regular royal
photographer, William Bambridge, was paid £643 3s
6d for his services.
The royal couple’s association with Becker and Sir
Charles Eastlake led to them becoming patrons of the
Royal Photographic Society soon after its inception in- They regularly visited its annual exhibition, pur-
chasing pictures as well as aiding the society through
their high profi le presence. Notable photographs ac-
quired for the Royal Collection include several copies of
Oscar Rejlander’s Two Ways of Life, and Henry Peach
Robinson had a standing order from Prince Albert for
a copy of every pictorial photograph he produced. In
1855, Albert also contributed £50 towards a study by
the Royal Photographic Society into how to prevent the
fading of photographs.
Victoria and Albert’s patronage of the Photographic
Society of London meant that they became acquainted
with some of the most prominent photographers of the
period. One typical example of the work carried out for
the couple was a commission given to Francis Bedford
by Victoria in 1857. Bedford was asked to travel to Co-
burg and take a series of pictures of Albert’s homeland
as a present for the Prince’s birthday. Roger Fenton was
another who took numerous royal photographs in the
1850s. These included a well-known set of Victoria’s
children in tableaux vivants in February 1854, and a
series of pictures of Buckingham Palace, Windsor and
Balmoral. Prince Albert also used his position to en-
able Fenton to obtain the necessary permission to take
his Crimean war photographs. These were eventually
published as Dedicated by Special Permission to Her
Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, Photographs by
Roger Fenton Esq. M.A. of the Seat of the War in the
Crimea (1855). At the wedding of the Princess Royal
in January 1858, T.R. Williams was requested to take a
series of daguerreotypes. It is important to emphasise
the photographs taken during this period were never
intended for publication and were all private commis-
sions by the royal family.
As well as Victoria and Albert’s domestic use of pho-
tography, they continued to give public support to the
medium. At the Art Treasures exhibition in Manchester,
opened by Albert in May 1857, numerous photographs
and paintings were lent from the Royal Collection. It