‘She will wear the britsch’: Masculinity and the iconography of Prince Albert | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 7, Issue 1-2
  • ISSN: 2050-070X
  • E-ISSN: 2050-0718

Abstract

This article examines the early representations of Prince Albert that either satirize or attempt to reconcile the hierarchical ambiguities and issue of threatened masculinity that resulted from unconventional male consortship and female rule. It concludes that the latter was achieved through the development of a suitable and legible iconography for a nineteenth-century male consort in adherence with British iconographic tradition and values. Drawing from methods in nineteenth-century art history as well as gender and performance studies and anthropology, it argues that images of the male body play a fundamental role in the construction and perpetuation of masculine ideology and subjectivity through the creation of the semblance of an innate and axiomatic masculine archetype. In doing so, this article problematizes and historicizes masculinity by illuminating the plurality of expressions of masculinity and rejecting the essentialist narrative of masculinity as something measurable or quantifiable, as well as ahistorical, atemporal, apolitical and heteronormative.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/csmf_00025_1
2020-12-01
2024-04-25
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Aurisch, Helga Kessler,, Chabanne, Laura,, von Stockhausen, Tilmann, and Straub, Mirja. (eds) ( 2015), High Society: The Portraits of Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Stuttgart:: Arnoldsche Art Publishers;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barilo von Reisberg, Eugene. ( 2009;), ‘ Tradition and innovation: Official representations of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. ’, MA dissertation, Melbourne:: University of Melbourne;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barilo von Reisberg, Eugene. ( 2016;), ‘ Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873): Portraiture in the age of social change. ’, Ph.D. thesis, Melbourne:: University of Melbourne;.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Beauvoir, Simone de. ( [1949] 1997), The Second Sex (trans. H. M. Parshley), London:: Vintage;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Beem, Charles. ( 2004;), ‘ “I am Her Majesty’s subject”: Prince George of Denmark and the transformation of the English male consort. ’, Canadian Journal of History, 34:3, pp. 45787.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Beem, Charles. ( 2008), The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History, New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Benson, Arthur Christopher, and Esher, Viscount. (eds) ( 1908), The Letters of Queen Victoria: A Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence between the Years 1837 and 1861, vol. 1, London:: John Murray;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bolitho, Hector. (ed.) ( 1933), The Prince Consort and His Brother: Two Hundred New Letters, London:: Cobden-Sanderson;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Brilliant, Richard. ( 1991), Portraiture, Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Brittan, Arthur. ( 1989), Masculinity and Power, Oxford:: Basil Blackwell;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Butler, Judith. ( 1988;), ‘ Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. ’, Theatre Journal, 40:4, pp. 51931.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Butler, Judith. ( 1997;), ‘ Imitation and gender insubordination. ’, in L. Nicholson. (ed.), The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory, London:: Routledge;, pp. 30015.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Butler, Judith. ( [1990] 2007), Gender Trouble, Oxford:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Campbell Orr, Clarissa. (ed.) ( 2004), Queenship in Europe 1660–1815, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Cobbett, William. ( 1829), Advice to Young Men, London:: Nicholson & Sons;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Colley, Linda. ( 1992), Britons Forging the Nation 1707–1837, New Haven:: Yale University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Darby, Elizabeth, and Smith, Nicola. ( 1983), The Cult of the Prince Consort, New Haven, CT:: Yale University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Davis, John. ( 2008;), ‘ The Coburg connection: Dynastic relations and the House of Coburg in Britain. ’, in K. Urbach. (ed.), Royal Kinship: Anglo-German Family Networks 1815–1918, Munich:: K.G. Sauer;, pp. 97116.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Duncan, Sarah. ( 2014;), ‘ “He to be Intituled Kinge”: King Philip of England and the Anglo-Spanish court. ’, in C. Beem, and M. Taylor. (eds), The Man Behind the Queen: Male Consorts in History, New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;, pp. 5580.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Duve, Thierry de. ( 1996), Kant after Duchamp, Cambridge, MA:: MIT Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Eismann, Ingeborg. ( 2007), Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805–1873): Der Fürstenmaler Europas, Petersberg:: Michael Imhof Verlag;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Emig, Rainer, and Rowland, Antony. (eds) ( 2010), Performing Masculinity, New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Feuchtwanger, Edgar. ( 2006), Albert and Victoria: The Rise and Fall of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, London:: Hambledon Continuum;.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Foucault, Michel. ( [1976] 1980), The History of Sexuality (trans. Robert Hurley), New York:: Vintage Books.;
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Foucault, Michel. ( [1969] 2002), The Archaeology of Knowledge (trans. Alan Sheridan), London:: Routledge.;
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Fredeman, William E.. ( 1987;), ‘ A charivari for queen butterfly: “Punch” on Queen Victoria. ’, Victorian Poetry, 25:3, pp. 4773.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Fulford, Roger. ( 1949), The Prince Consort, London:: Macmillan;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Funnell, Peter. ( 1998;), ‘ The iconography of Prince Albert. ’, in F. Bosbach, and F. Büttner. (eds), Künstlerische Beziehungen zwischen England und Deutschland in der viktorianischen Epoche, Munich:: K.G. Saur;, pp. 10920.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Geertz, Clifford. ( 1972;), ‘ Deep play: Notes on the Balinese cockfight. ’, Daedalus, 101:1, pp. 137.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Geertz, Clifford. ( 1973), The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, New York:: Basic Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Geertz, Clifford. ( 1980;), ‘ The refiguration of social thought. ’, American Scholar, 49:2, pp. 16579.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Goffman, Erving. ( [1956] 1973), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York:: Overlook Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Greville, Charles. ( 1927), The Greville Diary: Including Passages Hitherto Withheld from Publication, vol. 2 (ed. P. W. Wilson.), New York:: Doubleday and Page;.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Hobhouse, Hermione. ( 1983), Prince Albert: His Life and Work, London:: Hamish Hamilton;.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Jagow, Kurt. (ed.) ( 1938), Letters of the Prince Consort, New York:: E. P. Dutton & Company;.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Kestner, Joseph A.. ( 1999), Masculinities in Victorian Painting, Aldershot:: Ashgate;.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Laqueur, Thomas. ( 1990), Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud, Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Lehman, Peter. ( 1988;), ‘ In the realm of the senses: Desire, power, and the representation of the male body. ’, Genders, 2 (Summer), pp. 91110.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Mackintosh, John P.. ( 1958;), ‘ The early political influence of Queen Victoria 1837–52. ’, Parliamentary Affairs, 12:2, pp. 17488.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Mancoff, Debra N.. ( 1992; ),‘“Albert the Good”: Public image and private iconography. ’, Biography, 15:2, pp. 14064.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Martin, Theodore. ( 1882), The Life of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort, vols 1–2, London:: Smith, Elder;.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Millar, Oliver. ( 1992), The Victorian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Munich, Adrienne. ( 1996), Queen Victoria’s Secrets, New York:: Columbia University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Ormond, Richard, and Blackett-Ord, Carol. (eds) ( 1987), Franz Xaver Winterhalter and the Courts of Europe 1830–70, London:: National Portrait Gallery;.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Schechner, Richard. ( 1985), Between Theatre and Theatricality, Philadelphia, PA:: University of Pennsylvania Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Spall, Richard Francis Jr.. ( 1987;), ‘ The Bedchamber Crisis and the Hastings scandal: Morals, politics, and the press at the beginning of Victoria’s reign. ’, Canadian Journal of History, 22:1, pp. 19–39.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Stearns, Peter N.. ( 1990), Be a Man! Males in Modern Society, New York:: Holmes and Meier;.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Stemmler, Joan K.. ( 1993;), ‘ The physiognomical portraits of Johann Caspar Lavater. ’, Art Bulletin, 75:1, pp. 15168.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Taylor, David A. H. B.. ( 2014;), ‘ “The rising sun gains advantage”: The iconography of George of Denmark as Royal Consort. ’, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 37:2, pp. 24557.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Trigg, Stephanie. ( 2012), Shame and Honour: A Vulgar History of the Order of the Garter, Philadelphia, PA:: University of Pennsylvania Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Urbach, Karina. ( 2014;), ‘ Prince Albert: The creative consort. ’, in C. Beem, and M. Taylor. (eds), The Man Behind the Queen: Male Consorts in History, New York:: Palgrave Macmillan;, pp. 14555.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Wahrman, Dror. ( 1993;), ‘ “Middle-class” domesticity goes public: Gender, class, and politics from Queen Caroline to Queen Victoria. ’, Journal of British Studies, 32:4, pp. 396409.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Weintraub, Stanley. ( 1997), Uncrowned King: The Life of Prince Albert, New York:: Free Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Bradshaw, Hannah. ( 2020;), ‘ ‘She will wear the britsch’: Masculinity and the iconography of Prince Albert. ’, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, 7:1&2, pp. 199222, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00025_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/csmf_00025_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/csmf_00025_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error