Colonial Queensland Chalon Head 1882 - Australia Post

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> From the National Philatelic Collection
Colonial Queensland
Chalon Head 1882
5/- Rose
Portrait of Queen Victoria (detail)1837,
Royal Collection of Belgium, Brussels,
Alfred Chalon (1780-1860)
© KIK-IRPA, Brussels
Chalon Head stamp 1882. This image
was used for Queensland stamps from
1850-1910.
Alfred Chalon’s 1837 painting of Queen Victoria was the
reference for engravings used on a number of British colonies
stamps known as the Chalon Head. The portrait was used in
Australia on the stamps of Queensland and Van Diemen’s
Land/Tasmania; most other colonies used alternative depictions
of Queen Victoria.

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> From the National Philatelic Collection
Portrait of Queen Victoria, 1837, Alfred Chalon, Royal Collection of Belgium, © KIK-IRPA, Brussels
Original Portrait
The portrait head of Queen Victoria came from a painting by Alfred Edward
Chalon, inspired by the first public appearance of Victoria as Queen on the
occasion of her speech at the House of Lords where she opened the
Parliament of the United Kingdom in July 1837. Chalon's work was
intended as a gift from Victoria to her mother. In the portrait she is
wearing the George IV State Diadem, created in 1820, and the State
Robes, a dress and a long royal mantle. Her body is half-turned to the right
side, on top of a flight of stairs. While her head is turned to the right, her
left hand holds the plinth of a column on which there is a sculpted lion. At
that time, this portrait was also known as the "Coronation portrait" and an
engraving by Samuel Cousins was distributed to the public on 28 June,
1838.

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The Artist
Alfred Chalon 1780-1860 RA
Chalon was born in Geneva, Switzerland but left as a result of troubles
arising from the French Revolution. The family eventually settled in London
where Alfred and his brother John both became students at the Royal
Academy. He was made a full Academician in 1816 and became known
for painting miniatures on ivory. He also painted small portraits in
watercolour on paper, often about 15 inches high. He was a witty
caricaturist, and also painted genre and history subjects. His elegant
miniatures and watercolour portraits were hugely fashionable. He was
especially popular in court circles and was appointed painter in
watercolour to Queen Victoria. He famously said when asked by the Queen
whether he was worried by competition from the new invention of
photography, “Ah non, Madame, photography can’t flatter!”. The portrait
head of Queen Victoria came from a painting by Alfred Edward Chalon,
inspired by the first public appearance of Victoria as Queen on the
occasion of her speech at the House of Lords where she opened the
Parliament of the United Kingdom in July 1837.
Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land) Chalon Head – Imperforate
1d red, 2s green, 4d blue, 6d purple, 1/- orange

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Queen Victoria, portraiture and Australian stamps
Young Queen
Pencil sketch for New
South Wales ‘Diadems’
c1851
No sovereign had her image
reproduced more often than Queen
Victoria. Depictions appeared on
medals, shaving cups, gongs, napkin
rings, cufflinks, inkwells, paperclips,
pipes, tea towels, pot lids, coins,
postage stamps and also on
Canadian canoes and Australian
.
prison ships.
Victoria enjoyed many portraits
made of her throughout her lifetime,
portraits she often commissioned as
family gifts or records for the public.
Over the decades her image altered
from innocent princess and young
Queen to wife, mother, widowed
matriarch and moral guardian of the
country.
‘Diadems’ 1854-1860
New south Wales

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> From the National Philatelic Collection
Queen Victoria 1838
Alfred Chalon (1780-1860) ©
National Portrait Gallery, Scotland
Queen Victoria 1843
Franz Xavier Winterhalter
(1805-1873) German
painter and lithographer
The Royal Collection ©
2010, Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II
Self-portrait, (detail)
Queen Victoria aged 25
1844 The Royal Collection
© 2010, Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II
Domestic
This watercolour by Chalon was
the very first portrait the young
queen sat for after her accession to
the throne. She is dressed in the
robes she wore when Parliament
was dissolved after her uncle’s
death. Her hat is casually discarded
on the floor, she wears a
decorative apron which gives a
more domestic focus to this and
other portraits produced during the
middle period of her reign.
Feminine
Queen Victoria commissioned Franz
Winterhalter to paint this romantic,
and quite intimate portrait of her as
a gift to her husband Prince Albert
of Saxe-Coburg Gotha on his 24 th
birthday. The oval frame, soft face,
loose hair and bare shoulders show
a more feminine figure.
Sovereign
Victoria’s sketch self-portrait
shows a reflected gaze which is
without hesitation as to its owner’s
character as well as her sense of
sovereign purpose

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Queen Enthroned
State portrait of Queen Victoria
Sir George Hayter, oil on canvas,
(1838) National Portrait Gallery.
Photographic reproduction in
National Philatelic Collection
(Detail from portrait) ©
National Portrait Gallery
London
Queen on Throne stamp
(reprint) (Coronation
Throne) 1852-54
Engraving after Sir
George Hayter’s State
Portrait
Sir George Hayter was the Queen’s
“Portrait and Historical Painter” and
in 1841 was made “Principal
Painter in Ordinary to the Queen”.
He painted several royal
ceremonies including Queen
Victoria’s coronation of 1837 and
marriage of 1840 and also the
christening of the Prince of Wales
of 1843. He also painted several
royal portraits including his most
well known work, the State Portrait
of the new Queen Victoria. Several
versions of this portrait were done,
to be sent as diplomatic gifts.
Hayter's active period at court was
short-lived because Prince Albert
preferred German painters. By the
mid-1840s Hayter’s portrait style
was considered old-fashioned. He
adjusted his type of history painting
to suit the more literal taste of the
early Victorian era. Although a very
simplified interpretation, the fulllength
Queen on Throne stamp
captures the early Victorian gothic
style with the pointed design of the
Coronation Throne and in the
decorative elements and
background borders of the
engraved stamp.

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Widowed matriarch
Queen Victoria ,
Photographer, Alexander
Bassano 1885
National Portrait Gallery,
London
Commemorative
Diamond Jubilee
Canada 5c
Queen Victoria,
Diamond Jubilee 1897
Photography W & D
Downey ©
National Portrait Gallery,
London
Definitive stamps
1897-1910 2d, 21/2d
New South Wales
Victoria’s interest in portraiture reflected the Victorian interest in
realism influenced by the development of photography which was of
great interest to the Queen. She kept photographic albums, attended
photographic exhibitions and fervently supplied her portraitists with
photographs of their subject for reference. Images of Victoria that
appeared on stamps were based on engravings or lithographs derived
from either photography, paintings or watercolours.

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> From the National Philatelic Collection
Queen Victoria as guardian and embodiment of the
Empire
Portrait of Queen Victoria,
(detail) Photographer
Alexander Bassano ©
National Portrait Gallery,
London
Patriotic Fund,
Queensland
1900
Patriotic Fund,
Queensland
1900
There had been general criticism of portraits of Queen Victoria as lacking in
vitality and being unsmiling but it was also known that Queen Victoria used
portraiture to hide her smile and emphasise her serious image as a sovereign.
After Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert passed away in 1861, the Queen
went into a very long period of seclusion and withdrawal from public life which
lasted almost 10 years (1861-1871). It said that she needed to reassert her
claim to the monarchy and did so through portraits representing her as a
powerful monarch hardened by personal grief and widowhood. Portraits of
the 1870s show her as a resolute guardian and embodiment of English power.
This later image of Victoria persisted until her death in 1901.
Further reading:
Portraits of the Queen Ira B Nadel, Victorian Poetry, Vol.25, No. 3/4 , Centennial of Queen Victoria’s golden
Jubilee (Autumn-Winter, 1987), pp.169-191, West Virginia University Press