Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
The Royal Collection is one of the largest art collections in the world, spread amongst 15 royal residences and former residences across the UK. While the residences are are closed to the public and travel on hold, visitors can continue to enjoy the collection online, take 360-degree tours of palaces and exhibitions, download fun and educational family activities, watch behind-the-scenes films and more on the Royal Collection Trust website.
Highlights include a virtual tour of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace, film footage giving a closer-than-ever-before look at the tiny treasures of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House, and curators’ picks of the most extraordinary clocks in the Royal Collection.
VIRTUAL TOURS OF BUCKINGHAM PALACE
Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
Recognised around the world as the official residence of the Queen, this virtual tour, developed in collaboration with Google Expeditions, provides an opportunity to explore the Palace’s magnificent State Rooms in virtual reality or 360-degree format, and learn more from an expert curator about the treasures from the Royal Collection that furnish each room.
The most recent exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, George IV: Art & Spectacle (pictured above) explores the life and tastes of arguably the most magnificent of British monarchs. While the Queen’s Gallery’s doors are temporarily closed, art-lovers can still experience George IV’s unrivalled collection of art through a virtual walkthrough.
Visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace in 2018 enjoyed a special display Prince & Patron, a collection of art personally selected by the Prince of Wales to mark his 70th birthday. The exhibition can be enjoyed virtually on the Google Arts & Culture website.
BEHIND-THE-SCENEs FILMS
Royal Collection Trust/ (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Condition Checking Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. The 1:12 scale miniature royal palace designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens has been on display at at Windsor Castle for nearly a century. This film goes behind-the-scenes as curators and conservators carry out a condition check of its structure and contents. Focusing on one room at a time, each of the Dolls’ House’s 1,000 miniature objections is carefully removed for condition assessment, light cleaning and photography.
Conservation of Queen Victoria’s Throne. Queen Victoria’s State Throne Chair was made for the young queen upon her accession in 1837. In this film, curators and conservators explain the throne’s symbolic decorative scheme and demonstrates the techniques used to clean its delicate gold leaf surface. The throne still stands in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace, alongside that of the Queen and can be viewed during the Summer Opening of the State Rooms each year.
Japanese Samurai Armour. This film takes a close look at a rare and splendid Japanese samurai armour, sent to James I by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada in 1614. Decorated with gold lacquer dragons and lined with silk, it was the first of many lavish diplomatic gifts exchanged between the British and Japanese royal and imperial families. The armour will take centre stage in Royal Collection Trust’s forthcoming exhibition Japan: Courts and Culture at the Queen’s Gallery, which will explore four centuries of diplomatic, artistic and cultural exchanges between Britain and Japan.
A Hidden Musical Surprise. As conservators were restoring a 19th century silver inkstand that once belonged to Queen Mary, they discovered at tiny musical instrument hidden inside. In this short film, horological conservators restore the intricate miniature mechanism using minuscule tools, so that the inkstand’s enigmatic tune can be heard once again.
DIGITAL CATALOGUES
Royal Collection Trust/ (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
The complete collection of Queen’s Victoria’s journals is available to read for free. The 43,000 pages of journal entries give readers a unique insight into Victoria’s own thoughts about her life and reign – from her first diary entry at the age of 13 to her initial impressions of ‘beautiful’ Prince Albert three years later, her pride on her coronation day and her last entry just ten days before her death in 1901, aged 81.
Prince Albert: Life and Legacy. As Consort of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert’s role in national life included unofficial Private Secretary, a mentor to some of the greatest national projects of his day, and collector and patron of the arts. Some 23,500 items from the Royal Collection, Royal Archives and Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 are available to view, shedding new light on Albert’s profound influence on Victorian society.
The Georgian Papers Programme contains more than 100,000 documents from the Royal Archives and Royal Library relating to the Georgian period. History enthusiasts can even get involved in this ongoing digitisation project by helping to transcribe handwritten official and personal papers relating to George III, George IV, William IV and more.
UP CLOSE WITH PAINTINGS
Royal Collection Trust/ (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman, ‘The Music Lesson’, is one of just 34 surviving paintings by Johanne Vermeer and enormously popular with visitors to the Summer Opening of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace each year. In this Google Arts & Culture story, users can explore the painting in minute detail and discover more from expert curators about Vermeer’s remarkable techniques, which have earned him the title ‘Master of Light’.
Massacre of the Innocents, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, is usually on display in the State Apartments at Windsor Castle. The masterpiece brings together multiple narrative scenes to form one larger composition. This Google Arts & Culture story examines each episode one by one and details the changes made to the painting throughout its history to cover up the more disturbing elements of the story.
DOWNLOADABLE PUBLICATIONS
Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Maria Merian’s Butterflies brings together 200 dazzling illustrations of the natural world, produced during Merian’s travels through Suriname in South America in 1699. Maria Sibylla Merian is considered one of the most extraordinary female artists of her age – an intrepid German artist and scientist who brought the wonders of South America to Europe in the early 18th century.
High Spirits: The Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson, one of the wittiest and most popular caricaturists of Georgian Britain, features almost 100 of Rowlandson’s finest comic works. The collection offers a new perspective on an era best known through the novels of Jane Austen, with subject matter including the absurdities of fashion, the perils of love, political machinations and royal intrigue.
CURATOR’S CHOICE COLLECTIONS
Royal Collection Trust / (c) Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019
Keeping Time: Clocks in the Royal Collection. The Royal Collection includes hundreds of historical clocks and watches that have been collected by monarchs through the centuries, many of which are among the finest ever made. From musical and organ clocks to complex astronomical clocks, this online collection brings together some of the world’s most extraordinary timepieces.
Women Photographers in the Royal Collection. This online collection explores the historical and contemporary importance of women to the creation, study and dissemination of photographs. Users can browse highlights of the Royal Collection’s body of work by pioneering women photographers, including works by Frances Sally Day, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alice Hughes, Dorothy Wilding, and Annie Leibovitz.
