Queen Alexandra's trailblazing Coronation gown goes on show as Edwardian treasures arrive in Edinburgh
Installation view. Photo: Jane Massey.
EDINBURGH.—
The innovative gown worn by Queen Alexandra for her Coronation, a never-before-exhibited royal portrait of Queen Mary, and a wartime portrayal of North Queensferry are among more than 150 works of art from the Royal Collection that are on show in a major exhibition exploring the glamour of the Edwardian era. More than half of the items are on show in Scotland for the first time.
The Edwardians: Age of Elegance at The King’s Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh explores the lives of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and their son King George V and his wife Queen Mary, during a period of great opulence and fast-paced change.
On display for the first time in Scotland are the spectacular outfits worn by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra for their Coronation in 1902. Alexandra – renowned for her trendsetting fashion sense – selected the female-led Parisian fashion house Morin Blossier to design her ensemble, which included a mauve velvet mantle and a gown laced with thousands of tiny gold spangles. Designed knowing it would be worn for the first Coronation at Westminster Abbey to benefit from electric light, the dress broke with traditional white and would have glittered in an unprecedented fashion. Royal Collection Trust conservators spent more than 100 hours preparing it ahead of the successful London showing of the exhibition.
Visitors can recognise Alexandra’s ensemble in the monumental painting The Anointing of Queen Alexandra at the Coronation of King Edward VII, by favoured Danish artist Laurits Tuxen, displayed alongside her jewellery and Edward’s cloth-of-gold Coronation mantle.
Kathryn Jones, curator of the exhibition, said: ‘Alexandra’s choice of a shimmering gold fabric would have been incredibly novel; while the dress may have darkened over time, descriptions in contemporary newspapers described the new queen as appearing in an extraordinary blaze of golden light thanks to the new electric lighting. It's the first time the dress has been displayed outside of London, and is one of many powerful examples of how Edward and Alexandra, followed by George and Mary, held onto tradition but were not afraid to do it in their own way. We hope that visitors to the exhibition will come away with a renewed appreciation for this fascinating period, as Britain stood on the cusp of the 20th century, before the upheaval of World War I.’
The Edwardian period began with the emergence of Edward and Alexandra as the centre of a vibrant and youthful court that celebrated new ideas and fashions, as Queen Victoria receded from public life following the death of Prince Albert. The exhibition immerses visitors in the period – from Edward and Alexandra’s wedding in 1863 to the end of the Great War in 1918 – via explorations of their ‘ritzy’ lifestyle, personal interests and international travel, with a free multimedia guide narrated by Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville.
Visitors will get a sense of the private lives of Edward and Alexandra, who, as Prince and Princess of Wales, enjoyed the freedom to develop their own artistic interests and tastes. Their residences, Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in Norfolk, were handsomely furnished with sculpture, silverware, chinaware and potted plants – evoked in the exhibition through displays of works by the most recognisable names of the time, including Fabergé, Wedgwood and Tiffany & Co.
Edward and Alexandra were quick to embrace burgeoning artistic movements, and a remarkable book by William Morris, purchased for the Royal Library in 1906, is on show for the first time in Scotland. An original copy of The Story of the Glittering Plain, it features his distinctive designs for the fonts, borders and initials. It is displayed alongside a copy of Poems by Oscar Wilde, presented to Edward as a manifesto of aestheticism.
Highlights from the two couples’ private collections of paintings include small-scale works by artists, friends and artistic advisers to the royal family, Frederic, Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Alma-Tadema’s painting God Speed, showing a Roman woman scattering rose blooms, was given to the future King George V and Queen Mary by the artist as a wedding gift, reflecting the mutual respect between the artist and the royal couple.
The two royal couples travelled more widely than any sovereigns before them, forging diplomatic links and learning about different cultures. George and Mary grew particularly interested in the Indian subcontinent, while Edward commissioned foremost landscape photographer of the period, Francis Bedford, to record his tour of the Middle East. Bedford produced around 200 stills, including a photograph of Edward at the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt – then still largely submerged in sand – with the Great Pyramid in the distance.
The glamour of the era came to a definitive end with the outbreak of World War I. George, as Head of the Armed Forces, recognised the significance of living through a far-reaching war and collected works that recorded and honoured the sacrifices made by so many. A notable addition to his collection was Air Station, North Queensferry by official war artist Sir John Lavery, an Irishman who had moved to Glasgow at a young age. A sober portrayal of the Grand Fleet’s military operations at the Firth of Forth, the painting was among George’s military collections – which also included bleak scenes of the Western Front by pioneering female photographer Olive Edis. The decadence of the era was gone, leaving in its place a more restrained and dutiful monarchy.
