Watercolours collected by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to go on display

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An exhibition of 80 watercolours collected by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert is to go on display in Edinburgh.

Victoria & Albert: Our Lives in Watercolour will open at The Queen’s Gallery in the Palace of Holyroodhouse on Monday as coronavirus restrictions are eased.

It will feature numerous works by Scottish artists, with many on display in Scotland for the first time.

The royal yacht sailing into Granton Pier
The royal yacht sailing into Granton Pier in 1842 (Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II/PA)

The pair commissioned artists to depict the places they visited, including William Wyld’s romanticised view of Manchester which was painted to record their visit in 1851.

A watercolour by William Leighton Leitch depicting the royal yacht sailing into Granton Pier, one of those on display for the first time, was painted when they arrived in Edinburgh for their first tour of Scotland in 1842.

Victoria wrote afterwards: “Edinburgh made a great impression upon us, it is quite beautiful and totally unlike anything I have seen.”

The Palace of Holyroodhouse is also the subject of several works in the exhibition, including a watercolour of Edinburgh at sunset by the Dunfermline-born painter Waller Hugh Paton.

Queen Victoria at the unveiling of the statue of Prince Albert
William Simpson’s painting of Queen Victoria at the unveiling of the statue of Prince Albert in Edinburgh in 1876 (Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020/PA)

Victoria can also be seen in a watercolour by Glaswegian artist William Simpson in mourning clothes at the unveiling of the memorial to Albert in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square in 1876.

The exhibition runs until October 3, however the palace and The Queen’s Gallery are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Visitor information and tickets for The Queen’s Gallery can be found online at www.rct.uk.

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