拍品专文
The first cast of Gilbert's Victory surmounted the orb in Queen Victoria's hand on the sculptor's 1887 Golden Jubilee monument to her at Winchester. In a letter of 1 January 1911 Gilbert wrote, 'Its apparent joyousness is due to the fact that it was conceived and executed during the very few hours of happiness I have ever known.' A slightly different version of the work was presented by Gilbert to the Royal Academy in 1909 as a long-overdue deposit for his diploma work after he was elected full Academician in 1892.