An album containing four drawings by a teenage Queen Victoria is expected to fetch £1,500 to £2,500 ($1,900 to $3,170) when it goes to auction on July 9.
The Queen had a lifelong love for the arts that was cultivated early on: she started taking regular art lessons at eight years old, and was tutored by some of 19th century Britain's foremost painters, including, including Edwin Landseer, William Leighton Leitch, and George Hayter. Hayter later painted Victoria's coronation portrait, and served as her court painter for many years.
The four drawings were all done with ink. Three date from 1833, when Victoria was fourteen years old, and depict a knight, a woman, and a woman in a veil, all on horseback. The fourth dates from 1838-the year after Victoria's ascension to the throne, and depicts a seated woman with a crown and a sash. The young queen was still honing her craft at the time, although the drawings closely show Hayter's influence, according to Charlotte Russell, Head of Sale for Old Master, British and European Pictures at Roseberys.
It was likely Hayter's daughter-in-law, Augusta Hayter, who assembled the album, which also contains some of Hayter's works, including his sketches of the Queen in her coronation and parliamentary robes. Also in the album are drawings by other members of the Hayter family, works by James Roberts (not to be confused with the 18th century James Roberts), and an invitation to George IV's coronation in 1821.
Roseberys has sold other works by royal artists before. Last year, a painting by Queen Victoria's daughter, Princess Victoria, went for £4,198 ($5,320).
