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Lot Essay
James Roberts spent his early career from 1824 to 1828 in Paris and was clearly influenced by Eugène Lami, one of the specialists in the interior genre most favoured by the French royal and imperial families. 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 Roberts made a great number of watercolours for the Queen, mainly interiors of royal residences. In 1851 he was commissioned to paint views of rooms in the recently completed Osborne House and each year until his death in 1861 he was commissioned to record the Queen's Birthday Table. For a more detailed account of the Queen's Birthday Tables at Osborne depicted by Roberts from 1851 to 1856, 1859 and 1861, see D. Millar, The Victorian Watercolours and Drawings in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 1995, nos. 4625-4627 and 4629-4633.
Queen Victoria's unpublished journal for her birthday on 24 May 1860
mentions her delight with the gifts she received. She particularly mentions two 'Bas reliefs' by her eldest daughter 'Vicky', the Princess Royal: one was a portrait of Marie Lynar, the other represented the two 'Princes in the Tower' (centre and right of centre in the watercolour). The majority of the other items on the table appear to be watercolours by the other children, which were pasted into an album, now in the print room at Windsor: the dark upright picture towards the left of the table could be Princess Helena's 'copy from a photograph' (K941). The smaller items could include Princess Louise's two roundels 'from a small sketch of C. Haag' (K942-3) and her watercolour of a mother and child washing dishes 'After a German woodcut' (K944), as well as Prince Arthur's pencil drawing of a profile facing left (K945).
The marble figure in front of the chimney piece is Mary Thorncroft's figure of Prince Leopold (aged seven) as a fisher boy; this was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in Christmas 1860.
Another watercolour by Roberts of the Dining Room at Osborne House was sold by Christie's London, 14 November 1995, lot 66 (£9,200).
Queen Victoria's unpublished journal for her birthday on 24 May 1860
mentions her delight with the gifts she received. She particularly mentions two 'Bas reliefs' by her eldest daughter 'Vicky', the Princess Royal: one was a portrait of Marie Lynar, the other represented the two 'Princes in the Tower' (centre and right of centre in the watercolour). The majority of the other items on the table appear to be watercolours by the other children, which were pasted into an album, now in the print room at Windsor: the dark upright picture towards the left of the table could be Princess Helena's 'copy from a photograph' (K941). The smaller items could include Princess Louise's two roundels 'from a small sketch of C. Haag' (K942-3) and her watercolour of a mother and child washing dishes 'After a German woodcut' (K944), as well as Prince Arthur's pencil drawing of a profile facing left (K945).
The marble figure in front of the chimney piece is Mary Thorncroft's figure of Prince Leopold (aged seven) as a fisher boy; this was given to Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in Christmas 1860.
Another watercolour by Roberts of the Dining Room at Osborne House was sold by Christie's London, 14 November 1995, lot 66 (£9,200).