Lot Essay
James Roberts spent his early career from 1824-1828 in Paris and he is classified as a French artist in Bénézit's Dictionnaire. His debt to Eugene Lami, one of the specialists in the interior genre most favoured by the French Royal and Imperial families, is obvious. It is possible that Roberts was introduced to Queen Victoria by King Louis Philippe, for whom he had worked in Paris. From 1848 to 1861 he made a great number of watercolours for Queen Victoria, mainly interiors of royal residences. In 1851 he was commissioned to paint views of rooms in the newly completed Osborne House, the 'marine residence' on the Isle of Wight built for their private family occupation by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Subsequently the views were dispersed but several of them have returned to the royal collection at Windsor Castle and have been exhibited, most recently in Royal Residences of the Victorian Era, Manchester, 1991. The house was designed by Prince Albert with the assistance of Thomas Cubitt, master-builder and the man principally responsible for the development of London's Belgravia. The furnishings were provided by Thomas Dowbiggin and Holland & Sons, the leading London firms, amalgamated in 1851.
On the far wall of the dining room are two of Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portraits, the Duchess of Kent (Queen Victoria's mother) on the left and the great family portrait completed in 1846 and hung on the Queen's Birthday in 1849. After she had married and gone to live in Berlin the Princess Royal, portrayed in the centre of the group holding one of her brothers, wrote to her mother asking for reassurance that she was still in their thoughts: the Queen replied 'You long for Osborne and for running after dear Papa -- and ask me to think of you sometimes when I look at Winterhalter's picture and at those in Papa's room. My dearest child -- I can assure you, that there is not an hour of the day, not a picture or an object of any kind which I look at -- when I do not think of you.' (Dearest Child, Letters Between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal, 1858-1861, ed. Roger Fulford, London, 1964). In spite of the changes necessary to show the house to the public, the Osborne dining room is still much as it was when occupied by the Queen and her family.
On the far wall of the dining room are two of Franz Xaver Winterhalter's portraits, the Duchess of Kent (Queen Victoria's mother) on the left and the great family portrait completed in 1846 and hung on the Queen's Birthday in 1849. After she had married and gone to live in Berlin the Princess Royal, portrayed in the centre of the group holding one of her brothers, wrote to her mother asking for reassurance that she was still in their thoughts: the Queen replied 'You long for Osborne and for running after dear Papa -- and ask me to think of you sometimes when I look at Winterhalter's picture and at those in Papa's room. My dearest child -- I can assure you, that there is not an hour of the day, not a picture or an object of any kind which I look at -- when I do not think of you.' (Dearest Child, Letters Between Queen Victoria and the Princess Royal, 1858-1861, ed. Roger Fulford, London, 1964). In spite of the changes necessary to show the house to the public, the Osborne dining room is still much as it was when occupied by the Queen and her family.