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Portrait of Victoria

Detail from a 19th-century painted portrait of the young Queen Victoria. The Queen is a white woman with dark brown hair. She is wearing a white gown. On her head is a golden crown.

John Partridge, “Queen Victoria” (detail), House of Commons of Canada, O-1189.

This portrait of the young Queen Victoria hung in the gallery outside the entrance to the Legislative Council. Saved from the flames by a witness in 1849, it later survived other fires and remains today a powerful symbol of historical memory.

Saved from the Flames

A 19th-century painted portrait of the young Queen Victoria. The Queen is a white woman with dark brown hair. She is wearing a gown. On her head is a golden crown. Her hair is tied back. She is looking slightly to the right. She is standing in a royal hall.

John Partridge, “Queen Victoria”, Parliament of Canada, O-1189.

One of the few objects to escape the flames was the portrait of the young Victoria, hanging outside the Legislative Council chamber. As the fire broke out, someone cut the canvas from its frame, rolled it up, and carried it out of the building. The episode was reported by the Morning Courier.

The Portrait That Survived the Flames

A 19th-century lithograph depicting the 1854 fire at the Parliament of Québec. The Parliament buildings, ablaze at the centre of the scene, billow thick smoke. A dense crowd presses in around the square, watched over by soldiers. On the left, people use a ladder to pass furniture out of a building’s second-storey window.

“Destruction by Fire of the Parliament Buildings at Québec (1854)”, Ville de Québec, CI_N0127-N012731.

Remarkably, this portrait of Victoria survived several fires: the deliberate burning of Montréal in 1849, and the accidental fires at the parliaments in Québec City in 1854 and Ottawa in 1916. Cut out in haste at least once—perhaps more—the canvas is now slightly smaller than it was originally. It is now kept in the foyer of the Senate of Canada, in Ottawa.