Family portraits

Much as I love Winterhalter (and he is my favourite painter), it is quite easy to be seduced by the beautiful textiles, the jewels or other peripheral articles in his pictures.
With this von Angeli portrait of Alice, the eye is instantly drawn to her face and expression, and that is what you come back to.  It is interesting to compare this portrait with the Winterhalter of Alice; how totally different they are in style and execution and how different are the messages that they give us about the sitter.  The Winterhalter appropriately gives us the fresh faced Alice in a white gown, with fresh flowers in her hair - very much the young unformed maiden.  The von Angeli gives us the mature matriarch, in a simple stark but elegant gown - a mother and a woman with purpose and poise.  I can't help feeling that the choice of painter at each time of her life was entirely appropriate.

This is the first time that I've seen this Von Angeli portrait, and I must say that it is stunning.   This is the first portrait I've seen of her, in which, I am able to find a little of every one of her daughters in her face.  It seems as though she is staring straight at you, and Alicky1872 is right - you can almost hear her voice.  It's very rare that I see a portrait and get a true sense of who that person really was.  I think that Von Angeli has captured the beauty and character of Alice exceptionally well in this portrait.

Another plus with that von angeli portrait is that you rarely see alice painted or photographed with her face facing straight at you.  She is always captured in profile or with head tilted.

Another plus with that von angeli portrait is that you rarely see alice painted or photographed with her face facing straight at you.  She is always captured in profile or with head tilted.

Quite so.  There is a directness and positivity about this portrait that really suggests Alice's strong personality.  Really an exceptional portrait.

idem, 1879:

That is a beautiful portrait of the Hesse family! It's supposed to be Alice and Ludwig right? With Ella, Irene and Freidrich?

Leslie--L-R it is Alix, Ella, Ludwig, Alice, and Ernst-Ludwig.

I do wish we could discover why the whole family weren't included in the portrait.  I know that Alice is quoted as saying that Victoria was excluded for being 'too tall', but that still seems strange to me....Why are the others missing?

I know, it's been driving me crazy too! Here's another theory...maybe the other children (Victoria, Irene and May) had been photographed that year, (or maybe they had other self portraits commissioned) and the family decided to put the children who hadn't been, in the painting? I still think the major issue was the cost. The painting was possibly a gift to Queen Victoria and she may have already had paintings of the missing children. Just a guess!

I did not notice how father and son looked alike...

Well Alicky, Thomas has already explained that he doesn't thinbk that money was the issue, as the portraits were ordered by Q.Victoria and presumably paid for by her.
Mind you, having said that, Victoria always had the upper hand when it came to money and Alice, as the latter was often in want for funds; is it possible that the Queen set a limit on the cost of the painting, hence the reduced number of Alice's family?
Wouldn't it be marvellous if there was a companion piece to this painting that featured the other children (unlikely I know)?

I did not notice how father and son looked alike...

Both extremely handsome men!  I must say that I prefer Ludwig without the beard; he really is so attractive in this photo, in an entirely masculine way.
Ernie is equally handsome in a slightly different way.  I hope that I will be forgiven for suggesting that Ernie's face shows a sensitivity and possibly a vague hint of femininity that makes him very attractive.  I'm not for a moment suggesting that he was effeminate or trying to cast slurs upon his character, but I do think that there is something a little more than conventional masculine good looks apparent in his physiognomy.

(and the "not enough money"-theory is ridiculous in my opinion: the Hesses did - of course - not have as much money as other reigning houses like GB or Prussia, but they were not poor and  I cannot imagine that three more persons would have cost that much ...

Well Thomas, if I'm not mistaken, this is a forum where people are free to express their own opinions and ideas, without other people branding their views as "rediculous." I never claimed to be an acknowledged Hessian expert. I was only making a guess, since I have read that Alice asked to borrow money from Queen Victoria on quite a few occasions.  

Well, I still think that it is a matter of "composition".
Stuffing 8 persons into a painting of middle size is neither tasteful nor the intention.
Just read that originally they wanted to have only Ernie and Ella with the parents.

This portrait was just a "representative" of the hessians and the intention was not to have all of them painted
(and the "not enough money"-theory is ridiculous in my opinion: the Hesses did - of course - not have as much money as other reigning houses like GB or Prussia, but they were not poor and  I cannot imagine that three more persons would have cost that much ...

Thomas, I think that you must be right about this.  I didn't realise that it was not a big painting and if the original intention was just to have Ernie and Ella - well there you have it.  I wonder how Alix managed to find her way in there?
You're quite right that the Hessians were not poor per se; of course David Duff in 'Hessian Tapestry' suggests that Alice felt the comparative poverty of her situation, but that it was comparative nonetheless and that they were not exactly poor.
Anyway, thank you for shedding light on that question.

Fisrt time I saw Alice, I thought: "Waooo! She is just like her daughter Alix! Incredible!"
And now I think that Victoria looks like more her mother than the other daughters...

Thanks Lisa for the comparison photograph between Ernst Ludwig and his father! I wondered, whether anyone had thoughts about the Hessen siblings resembling one another, or resembling their mother Alice, for example. What is your opinion?

As I mentioned earlier, it would seem that all the girls had something of Alice in their faces - a lovely legacy.  Ernie definitely favours Ludwig in looks, don't you think?