Queenship and the construction of national identity in nineteenth-century British visual culture

This dissertation examines the representation of queenship in nineteenth-century Britain. Operating from an interdisciplinary perspective that incorporates art, social and literary history, I consider how the production and exhibition of an under-explored collection of ceremonial group portraits commissioned by Queen Victoria impacted public perception of the British monarchy and its relationship to feminine power in the Victorian period. My project revolves around Queen Victoria's unprecedented desire to document both the ceremonial and quotidian events of her life from the earliest moments of her reign and argues that the manner in which this was accomplished encouraged her subjects to regard their sovereign with exceptional intimacy. I trace the tremendous popularity of stories of historical queens, particularly Elizabeth I in oil paintings, popular prints, children's periodicals and illustrated collective female biographies, now invigorated by an obvious contemporary corollary. This rich artistic production reveals unexpected social and political anxieties and it contests conventional notions of distinctly feminine spheres of influence. It also challenges many of our current assumptions about royal patronage and Victorian historical conservation.