‘Mr Cooper’s interesting present’: likeness and learning in William Dyce’s Portrait of HRH the Prince of Wales, 1848, National Gallery of Victoria

Abstract

In 1877 an engaging portrait drawing of a child by William Dyce (fig. 1) was given to the National Gallery of Victoria by a little-known collector, Duncan Elphinstone Cooper.1 The subject was the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, known as Bertie, who addresses us in this work with confidence and barely suppressed good humour. The work is recorded in the Illustrated Catalogue of the National Gallery [of Victoria] from 1879 to 1918 and during the years of Edward VII’s reign is featured in an oval design as originally intended.2 This almost life-size drawing, while captivating in itself, reveals much about the compelling cultural missions driving its artist, patrons and owner, and the pow..