[Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee]

From the Getty Museum record

The photocollages in this album were likely make by a British upper-class woman during the 1880s and 1890s. Considered to be a hobbyist at the time, today she and other Victorian photocollagists are viewed as artists. The anonymous artist of this album created numerous scenes in her familiar indoor domestic settings. However, she also ventured outdoors to depict other types of social activities in which she and her circle would have participated. Here, a group has gathered on a balcony to celebrate Queen Victoria’s 1887 Golden Jubilee. The group is probably observing a parade or the passing of the royal entourage on a London street. The photocollagist drew panels on the wall behind the standing figures to mark the year of Queen Victoria’s coronation (1837) and the current year (1887)—her fiftieth as queen. A hand-sketched banner interwoven in the railing says, “God Save the Queen” and another, hanging above, expresses additional well wishes to the queen. The artist adopted photographic compositional framing practices more common in photography by cropping the top edge of this second banner and allowing its far-right edge to fall outside the image. It became popular in the Victorian age to collect photographs of Queen Victoria and her family in the form of small studio portrait photographs, known as _cartes-de-visite_. They measured 3 ½ x 2 1/8 inches, similar to the size of a baseball card, and were mounted on stiff board. They could be inexpensively printed and were widely disseminated. Thus, the same images might be found in numerous albums. The _cartes-de-visite_ could be inserted in specially manufactured album pages that came with slots. They often appeared in the same album in full-page collages that combined photographs with drawings in ink and watercolor. The artists sometimes added painted ornamentation around the full portraits, as in a cabinet card of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) ([84.XA.1252.36](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/108ZWS)) that is found in the same album. A cabinet card is a slightly larger version of the _carte-de-visite_ format measuring 6 ½ x 4 ¼ inches. This album’s photocollagist also created an elaborately drawn architectural frame that integrates _carte-de-visite _portraits of six of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s children ([84.XA.1252.42](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P78), [84.XA.1252.43](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P79), [84.XA.1252.44](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P7E), [84.XA.1252.45](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P7B), [84.XA.1252.46](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P7C), [84.XA.1252.47](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P7D)) and another for portraits of the queen; her husband; their son Prince Edward; his wife, Princess Alexandra of Denmark; and their son Prince Albert Victor ([84.XA.1252.37](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/108ZWV), [84.XA.1252.38](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/108ZWW), [84.XA.1252.39](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P74), [84.XA.1252.40](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P7A), [84.XA.1252.41](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/109P77)). Carolyn Peter, J. Paul Getty Museum, Department of Photographs, 2021 For more information about this album see the extended essay.