Queen Victoria
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | State Dining Room, Windsor Castle, UK |
| Location History: | The portrait was purchased from Sir William Ingram in 1901 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1902, after Queen Victoria’s death. It was then acquired by her son, Edward VII, and returned home to Windsor Castle. |
The painting "Queen Victoria" was painted by Benjamin Constant in 1899 to portray the might of the aforementioned European Queen. This artwork is painted with precision and depicts the elderly Queen sat on the throne with all her glory. She is the symbol of power and strength here and the luminous section of this painting highlights that. It seems like the artist deliberately wanted to emphasise the divinity through the golden hue that surrounds the Queen's figure. Oil on canvas provides a great medium for this artwork. It should also be highlighted that the rule of Britain flourished on the colonies like India and she was often regarded as the mother, guiding force figure to Indians. This was a way of exploiting the colonised by making them feel like "the children" of Queen Victoria when in reality she was the coloniser, the Empress of India. Contextually, Queen Victoria died in 1901 but her paintings and statues are present in different parts of the world like Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, India.