The Gallery of the Royal Collections dedicates an exhibition to Queen Victoria Eugeniethe first that the gallery has made of the monarch who, according to National Heritage, “modernized the Spanish monarchy in the first decades of the 20th century” and “gave a profound social meaning to the role of queen consort“.
At the presentation of the exhibition, the director of the Gallery, Víctor Cageao, stated that the intention of ‘Victoria Eugenia’ is to teach “how the queen used her powerful image to defend those causes in which she was involved, social and educational causes, which are the main legacy he leaves.
“The queen’s work was especially focused on the education and health of children and women.“, explained this Monday one of the curators of the exhibition, Reyes Utrera, while adding that to show this activity they have recreated the monarch’s office, where images of the queen participating in different charitable events and documents that certify her involvement in, for example, the creation of hospitals, as the curator pointed out, are also displayed.
The exhibition can be visited starting this Wednesday, after the official opening that will take place this Tuesday and which will be attended by the Kings, and will be located on the -3 floor of the art gallery until next April 5.
The exhibition displays 350 pieces related to the queenamong them personal objects, portraits made by painters such as Sorolla or Menéndez Pidal, photographs and the mahogany carriage in which she traveled dressed as a bride to marry Alfonso
“The intention is to show different moments in her life as a queen, books, periodicals, paintings and sculptures that remind us that Victoria Eugenia was a queen with a very powerful, very strong image, and she knew it.“added Cageao.
Likewise, the exhibition “reflects on the queen’s childhood at the English court, her courtship and marriage with Alfonso XIII and her role as a mother,” Cageao stressed. In addition, National Heritage has recreated a series of the queen’s personal rooms such as her boudoir or the reading room, one of the hobbies that “he enjoyed in the most private sphere of his privacy”, as explained by fellow commissioner Arantxa Domingo.
The tour ends with a section dedicated to her exile where it is explained that after the proclamation of the Republic, the queen left Spain with her entire family. Besides, A screen has been installed on which you can see an interview that the monarch gave to French television in 1967two years before his death, in which he expresses how he experienced this moment.
As part of the temporary exhibition, the Royal Collections Gallery has included activities such as concerts, conferences and family workshops, in addition to the publication of a monograph of the queen with a foreword by King Felipe VI. ““This exhibition also helps us delve into this very important role in the humanitarian field of Queen Victoria Eugenia.”concluded the director of the Gallery.