Posted on: 30 August 2013

'The Secret of England's Greatness' (Queen Victoria presenting a Bible in the Audience Chamber at Windsor)
By Thomas Jones Barker

Date painted: c.1863
Oil on canvas, 167.6 x 213.8 cm

There are many paintings that represent the British Empire, but The Secret of England’s Greatness (1863) by Thomas Jones Barker is one of the most powerful. It depicts Queen Victoria presenting a bible to a kneeling African chief in the Audience Chamber at Windsor. In the background are her husband, Albert, and members of the government. The painting was reproduced in engravings and was very popular at the time. Despite the frequent depiction of empire as a masculine world, the queen was the symbolic figurehead of the British Empire, especially after she was crowned Empress of India in 1876.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London


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Very much an echo of Spiridione Roma's "The East Offering Her Riches to Britannia" hung at East India House from the late 18th century. Also, Prince Albert had been dead for two years by 1863.

the prince died in 1861 - this portrait tells a fake story?

It's allegorical in nature. Britain was just off a relatively peaceful decade, notwithstanding the Crimean War or the Indian Mutiny, and its reputation as a global policeman and banker was getting fossilised.

all lies can be allegorical

This is a painting not a photograph !

Well put Shashi Kolar! "...and its reputation as a global policeman and banker was getting fossilized."

I think it was exemplary feminist painting. It is allegorical, no doubt and very telling of how women were able to demonstrate 'quiet' power. I especially like how the two prime ministers and the prince are relegated to the background. The queen is in 'full light'. The secret of england's greatness is not the bible as imagined - it is in it's women! Quite a remarkable message for its time