image id: ps_cps_cd2_034
Queen Victoria (1819–1901)
Pencil drawing of hand, ca. 1830, with annotations (not Victoria’s)
NYPL, The Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle
Victoria’s father died when she was an infant. Her mother, the Duchess
of Kent, followed (knowingly or not) two dicta of the influential Romantic
philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in her parenting: she breast-fed Victoria
herself, and raised her in isolation. However, the methods employed were more
puritanical than Romantic: she encouraged her daughter’s conscience by
having Victoria write reports on her own behavior. The princess’s lessons
included drawing, for which she shows a marked talent in this picture.
