Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll

by Joan M. Rehlin
A ​mini art history post, featuring Louise Caroline Alberta (3/18/1848 – 12/3/1939) who was the sixth of eight children of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Although she was a prolific artist, because Princess Louise was also a female and member of the British royal family, her artwork remained largely unknown until recent years.
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At the behest of their father, Princess Louise and her siblings were taught strict, practical tasks such as cooking, farming, and carpentry. When Princess Louise demonstrated artistic talents, her mother allowed her to study at the National Art Training School. Yet, due to her royal rank the princess was not allowed to pursue an artistic career. Not to be deterred, the princess continued creating art, and when her husband. Lord Lorne, Duke of Argyll, was named Canada's Governor General, they moved to Ottawa’s Rideau Hall where Princess Louise hung her paintings and installed her sculpted works. While in Canada, they founded the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and the princess continued creating artwork with a fondness for depicting scenery near their cottage on the Cascapedia River. 

Several of Princess Louise’s sculptured works remain standing today, including:  1) a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Royal Victoria College, Montreal, now McGill University; and 2) one outside Kensington Palace where the magnificent statue, created to mark the Queen’s golden jubilee, both flatters as well as suggests the chilly nature of its subject. Due to increasing ill health, the last public appearance Princess Louise made was at the Home Arts and Industries Exhibition in 1937, two years before her death. Her passing, at age 91, left a wealth of artistic creations which include, clockwise from upper left: 
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A View of Lake Como, watercolor, 1871
View from Lorne Cottage, watercolor, c. 1879
Queen Victoria, sculpture at Kensington Palace, 1893