3-008-465 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Bust of Her Royal Highness the Princess Alice, by Mrs. Thornycroft, 1862. Engraving of a sculpture. '...this accomplished lady...shares equally with her husband the honour of ranking among our most distinguished sculptors...[She] has attained eminence in an art which, if not more difficult than painting, is certainly one in which her sex has hitherto much more rarely excelled...the Princess Alice displayed so much filial constancy and affectionate attention to her Royal mother on her recent bitter bereavement that she must have endeared herself to all, and her portrait will therefore be especially welcome in every English home. Her face is...a faithful index to her character. It at once guarantees a gentle, unassuming, amiable nature, almost nervously sensitive in its refinement, and with a shade of pensiveness which, when found in so young a face, seems always to convey the assurance of a sincerity and truthfulness not always the characteristics of extreme youth...The hair does not, properly speaking, "ripple," but has an easy, playful wave; and it is in the bust looped up and knotted behind, leaving one or two pendent curls, very much after the simple, graceful fashion of Greek busts. A wreath of roses appropriately crowns the head'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.