The Quest for Albion: Monarchy and the Patronage of British Painting

British paintings are one of the Royal Collection's greatest strengths. Gathered over several centuries, partly on an official basis and partly as the result of the personal taste of monarchs, the pictures are wide-ranging and of great significance to the history of British art. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, The Quest for Albion is an anthology of British paintings in the Royal Collection. Of the forty-six pictures included, some are masterpieces and others will be less familiar, but the place of each in the growth of the Collection is fully explained in the notes to the plates. The part played by successive monarchs--in particular George III, George IV, and later Queen Victoria with the encouragement of Prince Albert--in the formation of a national school is further described in the introductory essay by Christopher Lloyd, Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures.