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Queen's Birthday Celebrated On Victoria Day, May 18
  
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Smart About Art
By Cheryl VanBuskirk, For The Bulletin
Victoria Day began in the 19th century when around 5,000 residents of Toronto, Canada, gathered in front of Government House to “give cheers to the queen” in honor of her birthday. Over the years, the official date and name of the holiday changed due to royal proclamations, but it is now a statutory holiday, when most people are entitled to a day off from work, celebrated on the last Monday before or on May 24. This date does not change with a change of monarch; it remains set on the birthday of Queen Victoria, the Canadian monarch at the time of the Canadian Confederation.
Several cities in Canada hold a parade and firework shows in honor of the holiday. Most famous is the one held in Victoria, British Columbia, the monarch’s namesake city. The long weekend signifies the beginning of spring when summer businesses open, gardeners ready their gardens and weekend cottagers begin preparing their recreational properties. In some parts of Canada, Victoria Day is known as May Two-Four which has two meanings: The holiday always falls near the date of May 24 and a two-four is Canadian slang for a case of 24 bottles of beer. Drinking beer on this long weekend is a popular activity.
Queen Victoria, 1819-1901, had many portraits painted of her by different artists over her lifetime and reign of 63 years. Franz Xaver Winterhalter, a German painter and lithographer, painted at least 120 portraits for the royal family of Victoria, Prince Albert and their children. Appointed court painter by King Louis-Philippe, he was fashionable and popular, enjoying the reputation of a specialist in dynastic and aristocratic portraiture. “Victoria in her Coronation Robes wearing the State Diadem” was painted by Winterhalter in 1837 when Queen Victoria was 18 years old. The academic and deliberate composition of this painting seems influenced by Renaissance and Neo-Classical styles, perhaps influenced by the work of artists like Raphael and David. The illusion of space is very methodically developed with a clear, bright red step into the foreground, Queen Victoria is solidly and brightly positioned on an angle to bring us into the midground and less visible columns with a distant, hazy landscape scene create the background. Light and dark are used to define shapes both simply, as seen in the steps, and subtly, as seen in the Queen’s skin and skirts. Soft billows of fabric frame the subject from above and below as if to soften any hard lines of furniture or architecture.
The Queen is carefully placed at the center of an intimate setting as a reserved, reticent ruler surrounded by royal luxury and finery. A master in conveying the different textures of fabrics, furs and jewelry, Winterhalter created life-like but idealized images that his sitters desired to project to their viewers. Queen Victoria is shown as serious and intent, sitting very upright and alert while also elegant, refined and confident. Extremely masterful at drawing and representing figures, he painted directly onto the canvas without making many preliminary studies; his style was suave, cosmopolitan and accomplished.
A well-known American portrait painter, Thomas Sully, was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1783 although his large, artistic family immigrated to the United States when he was a young child. He was given instruction from other artists in his family and returned to England several times seeking advice and practice for his painting. In 1837, at the age of 54, probably the height of his career, he was requested to paint a portrait of Queen Victoria by the St. George’s Society of Philadelphia.
In Sully’s “Queen Victoria,” 1838, the queen is 19 years old. The composition, setting, creation of space and use of light are somewhat similar to the painting by Winterhalter, created just one year earlier. Yet Sully depicts his subject with a more dramatic use of light and dark, an untraditional pose and less tightly detailed, more flowing brushwork to convey personality and mood. While the light and dark areas flow gradually into one another in Winterhalter’s painting, Sully’s painting uses less variations of light and dark. His brightest light highlights Queen Victoria’s face, shoulder and arm as she looks directly back at us. The more simplified, less cluttered setting keeps our focus on her twinkling crown, jewelry and regal garments. The more casual pose of the Queen caught in an everyday action has freshness and charm.
Cheryl VanBuskirk has been teaching art and art history on the Main Line for more than 30 years.
Several cities in Canada hold a parade and firework shows in honor of the holiday. Most famous is the one held in Victoria, British Columbia, the monarch’s namesake city. The long weekend signifies the beginning of spring when summer businesses open, gardeners ready their gardens and weekend cottagers begin preparing their recreational properties. In some parts of Canada, Victoria Day is known as May Two-Four which has two meanings: The holiday always falls near the date of May 24 and a two-four is Canadian slang for a case of 24 bottles of beer. Drinking beer on this long weekend is a popular activity.
Queen Victoria, 1819-1901, had many portraits painted of her by different artists over her lifetime and reign of 63 years. Franz Xaver Winterhalter, a German painter and lithographer, painted at least 120 portraits for the royal family of Victoria, Prince Albert and their children. Appointed court painter by King Louis-Philippe, he was fashionable and popular, enjoying the reputation of a specialist in dynastic and aristocratic portraiture. “Victoria in her Coronation Robes wearing the State Diadem” was painted by Winterhalter in 1837 when Queen Victoria was 18 years old. The academic and deliberate composition of this painting seems influenced by Renaissance and Neo-Classical styles, perhaps influenced by the work of artists like Raphael and David. The illusion of space is very methodically developed with a clear, bright red step into the foreground, Queen Victoria is solidly and brightly positioned on an angle to bring us into the midground and less visible columns with a distant, hazy landscape scene create the background. Light and dark are used to define shapes both simply, as seen in the steps, and subtly, as seen in the Queen’s skin and skirts. Soft billows of fabric frame the subject from above and below as if to soften any hard lines of furniture or architecture.
The Queen is carefully placed at the center of an intimate setting as a reserved, reticent ruler surrounded by royal luxury and finery. A master in conveying the different textures of fabrics, furs and jewelry, Winterhalter created life-like but idealized images that his sitters desired to project to their viewers. Queen Victoria is shown as serious and intent, sitting very upright and alert while also elegant, refined and confident. Extremely masterful at drawing and representing figures, he painted directly onto the canvas without making many preliminary studies; his style was suave, cosmopolitan and accomplished.
A well-known American portrait painter, Thomas Sully, was born in Lincolnshire, England in 1783 although his large, artistic family immigrated to the United States when he was a young child. He was given instruction from other artists in his family and returned to England several times seeking advice and practice for his painting. In 1837, at the age of 54, probably the height of his career, he was requested to paint a portrait of Queen Victoria by the St. George’s Society of Philadelphia.
In Sully’s “Queen Victoria,” 1838, the queen is 19 years old. The composition, setting, creation of space and use of light are somewhat similar to the painting by Winterhalter, created just one year earlier. Yet Sully depicts his subject with a more dramatic use of light and dark, an untraditional pose and less tightly detailed, more flowing brushwork to convey personality and mood. While the light and dark areas flow gradually into one another in Winterhalter’s painting, Sully’s painting uses less variations of light and dark. His brightest light highlights Queen Victoria’s face, shoulder and arm as she looks directly back at us. The more simplified, less cluttered setting keeps our focus on her twinkling crown, jewelry and regal garments. The more casual pose of the Queen caught in an everyday action has freshness and charm.
Cheryl VanBuskirk has been teaching art and art history on the Main Line for more than 30 years.
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