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Enamel on gold, the counter-enamel signed, dated and inscribed in red paint ‘Ernest Hereditary/ Prince of Saxe Coburg/ And Gotha/ After Lucas/ by J Simpson, 1845’.

Original gold and enamel mount, the reverse engraved with letter ‘E’ under crown and ‘FROM/ VICTORIA. R./ Aug: 1845'.

This portrait of Ernest II, elder brother of Prince Albert, was given to him, or to his wife Alexandrine, by their sister-in-law, Queen Victoria, in 1845. Victoria had first met both brothers in 1836 when they visited Windsor. Of the two brothers, Ernest was initially thought to be the most viable suitor for the young Princess of Kent (as Victoria then was), being sporty and sociable in nature. The brothers returned to Germany disappointed, however, with no offer of marriage. When they came back to England in 1839, their cousin had been crowned Queen and she proposed to Albert days after his arrival, their marriage taking place the following year.
Two years later, Ernest himself married Princess Alexandrine of Baden. The couples visited each other’s homes in England and Germany, sharing childhood memories as the two brothers, born only fourteen months apart, had been raised almost as twins. The scandal and subsequent divorce of their parents and the early death of their mother brought the two even closer. despite this degree of intimacy, the brothers also had disagreements. Just before Ernest left for home after a visit to England in 1844, Victoria recorded in her journal;
‘Dear Ernest, who I was always fond of, I particularly regretted parting from, in his present state of health, which is a great anxiety, but I can never be thankful enough for the benefit of this visit, in as much as it has restored, if not entirely, at best in a great degree, his confidence in his beloved brother.’ [1]
This peaceful state of affairs clearly continued into the following year, when Victoria presented this enamel. Victoria’s relationship with Ernest appears to have been shaped by Albert’s need to remain friendly after their turbulent childhood. When the brothers visited her in the autumn of 1839, Queen Victoria compared Ernest unfavourably to Albert, observing to Lord Melbourne: ‘I didn't think Ernest handsome, though I thought him well looking’; later, in 1844, she would note his ‘unbecoming beard’, shown here in this enamel. Her relationship with the ever-faithful Alexandrine was close, Victoria finding her easy company. Their childless marriage was in contrast to Victoria and Albert’s own growing brood, with Ernest’s extra-marital affairs resulting in several illegitimate children.
After Albert’s death in December 1861 Victoria became closer to Ernest again, sharing her grief with her beloved husband’s closest living relative. He was godfather to Alice, the couple’s second daughter and gave her away at her wedding which took place after Albert’s death. Later, he became something of a liability for the family. In 1891, when Victoria and Ernst met in France, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting wrote ‘…the old Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha has been here today with his wife. He is the Prince Consort’s only brother and an awful looking man, the Queen dislikes him particularly. He is always writing anonymous pamphlets against the Queen and Empress, which naturally creates a great deal of annoyance in the family…’. Queen Marie of Romania, born Princess Marie of Edinburgh, said of her great uncle, he is ‘… an old beau, squeezed into a frock-coat too tight for his bulk and uncomfortably pinched in at the waist’, sporting a top hat, lemon coloured gloves, and a rosebud in his lapel.’
Naturally, the Royal Collection has several portrait miniatures of Ernest in the collection, including an earlier enamel by William Essex after Sir William Charles Ross’s portrait of 1840 [RCIN 421635] and a double portrait of the brothers by Robert Thorburn [RCIN 406916]. The present enamel is taken from the portrait of the Duke by John Lucas [RCIN 404519], commissioned by Queen Victoria when he was in England in July and August 1842 with his new wife (Alexandrine’s portrait by Franz Xavier Winterhalter is also in the Royal Collection [RCIN 404512]). The enamel by Simpson copies the head and shoulders of this portrait and was painted during the first year in which the artist was employed by the queen. Formerly employed as a porcelain painter at the Derby porcelain factory, he is last recorded as a 'photographic artist' (1871 census return); the date of his death is not known.

[1] Queen Victoria’s Journals; Journal Entry : Tuesday 17th December 1844; Place of writing: (Principal Royal Residence) Windsor Castle [accessed online 22nd May 2019].