Queen Victoria is one of our best loved monarchs. Almost within touching distance of our own time her story is so familiar to us it seems unlikely that there is much new to discover.
Victoria`s mother, the Duchess of Kent had already been married and widowed before her wedding to a son of George III. By her first husband she had a daughter, Feodora, who came to live in London when her mother remarried. At Kensington Palace she married the Prince of Hohenloe Langenberg. Their son, and Queen Victoria`s nephew, was Prince Victor Gleichen. After distinguished service in the British Navy he took up a career as a sculptor, working from his apartments in St James` Palace.
Quickly becoming the Victorian sculptor of choice his work may be found in collections throughout Britain, and especially in the Royal Collection.
Two of his children followed in their father’s footsteps.
Feodora became an even more successful sculptor, exhibiting at the Royal Academy on more than a dozen occasions. Helena, an early suffragist who served on the Western Front during WWI was an accomplished artist.
This lecture looks at Prince Victor and tells his remarkable story through his work and that of his daughters.
