Inside the Gilded World of Edwardian High Society at Buckingham Palace

Marking the final flourish of aristocratic splendor before the upheaval of World War I, the Edwardian era is remembered for its opulence, leisure, and devotion to style. A new exhibition at Buckingham Palace’s King’s Gallery, “The Edwardians: Age of Elegance,” captures that gilded moment through more than 300 works drawn from the Royal Collection.

Edward VII, his wife Queen Alexandra, and their successors King George V and Queen Mary, were two of Britain’s all-time most fashionable royal couples. As well as throwing endless parties, concerts, and sporting events, they expressed their elevated tastes through the acquisition of hordes of art, fashion, and jewelry. Each gallery practically glitters with all of the expected treasures, including tiaras and bedazzled opera glasses, sumptuous ball gowns, gilt porcelain, silverware, and adorable Fabergé animals cut from an array of precious stones, like lapis lazuli, sapphire, and ruby. Ceremonial and other handcrafted items from across the globe are included courtesy of king and queen’s international tours to British colonies, including Malta, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, and India.

As well as the expected stately portraits by leading painters like John Singer Sargent and Philip de László, the exhibition reveals the monarchs’ support for a wide range of their era’s leading lights, including Oscar Wilde, Edward Burne-Jones, Frederic Leighton, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and important women artists and actors like Rosa Bonheur and Sarah Bernhardt.

On account of being housed in Buckingham Palace and drawn from the U.K.’s Royal Collection, the exhibition centers heavily on the the Edwardian royals, telling a story about the early 20th century that stops short at old-school splendor and excludes any mention of the avant-garde. It also evades any responsibility to apply a critical lens on Britain’s colonial past. However, visitors seeking to be dazzled by opulence need look no further.

Here are five highlights that are sure to impress.

John Singer Sargent, (1908)

One hundred years after Sargent’s death in 1925, he remains a firm favorite among art lovers, as evidenced by one celebratory blockbuster show currently on view at the Met and set to travel to the Musée d’Orsay this fall. King Edward VII was certainly a fan, describing Sargent as “the most distinguished portrait painter in England.” His brush was so coveted and his list of commissions so exhausting that, in around 1907, Sargent retired from painting large-scale portraits. This 1908 image of the King’s sister-in-law, Louise, Duchess of Connaught, was one of his very last. Its sense of character and richly opulent fabrics are hallmarks of the Sargent’s style.

After 1910, Sargent occasionally accepted commissions for charcoal sketches that could be easily completed during one two-hour sitting. An example of Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, from 1920 is also included in the exhibition.

Rosa Bonheur, (c.1870-91)

In the years before their coronation, when Edward and Alexandra were still Prince and Princess of Wales, the couple had plenty of time to develop their artist interests. The keen collectors sought to fill the walls of their two residences, Marlborough House in London and Sandringham House in Norfolk. One of their particular passions was paintings of animals, so they leapt at the chance to acquire a work from the celebrated French artist Rosa Bonheur’s estate sale in 1900.

This painting of a lion seen in profile is suitably majestic and calls to mind the dignity usually afforded important human subjects. Bonheur is one of the most famous women artists of the 19th century and her works were exhibited in the Paris’s most prestigious venues, including the Musée d’Orsay and the Salon of 1848.

Frederic Leighton, (1859)

Edward and Alexandra collected several paintings by the English painter Frederic Leighton, of which  , featuring his preferred model Anna Risi, is the standout. The future king wrote about the experience of encountering the work at Leighton’s studio in Rome in 1859, when he was just 17 years old, recalling how he “admired three beautiful portraits of a Roman woman.” He hung the painting in his college rooms in Frewin Hall while studying at the University of Oxford.

The Prince of Wales later paired the work with another Leighton painting in the exhibition, (1862). Though it is equally elegant and classicizing, this work is much lighter and less brooding. Leighton’s academic style was highly sought after in his lifetime and in 1878 he became president of London’s Royal Academy for nearly two decades.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (c.1893)

The London-based Dutch painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema was another royal favorite who was also Edward and Alexandra’s friend and artistic advisor. He even assisted with the with decorations for the king’s coronation in 1902 and later, in 1908, recalled how “the golden hours I had the honor of passing at [the royal residence of] Sandringham cannot be forgotten.”

This painting, in which a woman scatters roses like confetti in an imagined Mediterranean setting, was a gift celebrating the wedding of the future King George V to Queen Mary in 1893. Alma-Tadema was hugely popular in Victorian Britain for gracefully decadent scenes that were heavily inspired by the classical world,

Fabergé, (1907-9)

Edward and Alexandra’s strong links with European royalty also influenced the breadth of their collection. Alexandra had been born a Danish princess in Copenhagen and after her sister, Dagmar, married Alexander III, Emperor of Russia, she introduced the couple to the Russian jeweller Fabergé. Their patronage hugely boosted the firm’s popularity in Britain. Several exceptional pieces are on display, including an Art Nouveau cigarette case decorated with a diamond snake biting its tail, lavish photo frames, and a group of animal figurines, including a pigeon, a Norfolk Black turkey, and this Norfolk sow. It was made in 1907-9 from aventurine quartz and rose diamond.

Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com