Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/577

 her religion was undogmatic, and she sympathised with the broad views of Strauss, Renan, Schopenhauer, and Huxley. An ardent champion of religious toleration, she severely condemned anti-semitism. In politics she was steadfast to the creed of civil liberty in which her father had trained her, and she declined to reconcile herself to the despotic traditions of the Prussian court. She made little effort to adapt herself to her German environment, which was uncongenial to her. She often acted unwisely on the impulse of the moment ; she was no good judge of character and was outspoken in her dislikes of persons, which she frequently conceived at first sight. Her unflinching resistance to Bismarck proves her courage, and her persistent support of social, artistic, and philanthropic reform in Prussia bears permanent testimony to the practical quality of her enlightenment. Her wise benevolence earned the gratitude of the German people, but she failed to win their affection.

Of her eight children she was served by her two eldest sons (the Emperor William II and Prince Henry) and four daughters. Her third son, Sigismund, died as an infant on 19 June 1866, and she lost her youngest son, Waldemar, on 27 March 1879, at the age of eleven. She lived to see the marriages of all her remaining children. The Emperor William married, on 27 Feb. 1881, Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein, and Prince Henry married on 24 May 1888 Princess Irene of Hesse-Alt. Her four daughters, Princesses Charlotte, Victoria, Sophie, and Margarete, wedded respectively Prince Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen (on 18 Feb. 1878), Prince Adolph of Schaumburg-Lippe (on 19 Nov. 1890), Constantine, Dvike of Sparta (on 27 Oct. 1889), and Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse (on 25 Jan. 1893). All her children, except Princess Victoria of Schaumburg-Lippe, had issue, and her grandchildren numbered seventeen at the time of her death. Her grandchild Feodora (b. 1879), daughter of Princess Charlotte of Saxe-Meiningen, married on 24 Sept. 1898 Prince Henry XXX of Reuss.

As princess royal of England from her infancy and then as crown princess of Germany the Empress Frederick was frequently drawn, painted, and sculptured. The earliest portrait, perhaps, is that in 'The Christening of the Princess Royal,' painted by Charles Robert Leslie, R.A., now at Buckingham Palace. As a child the princess was painted more than once by Sir William Ross, R.A., in miniature, and by Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A., with a pony, and again with Eos, her father's favourite greyhound. In the series of small statuettes in marble, by Mary Thomycroft [q. v.], now at Osborne House, the princess royal appears as 'Summer.' Another bust was made by Emil Wolff in 1851. The princess appears in the large family group of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, by Winterhalter in 1846 and she was painted by the same 'artist at different stages of her life — as a girl, on her first debut in society, at her marriage, and as princess of Prussia.' The Marriage of the Princess Royal and Prince Frederick William of Prussia' (1858), painted by John Phillip, R.A., is now at Buckingham Palace. Among other English artists who drew portraits of the princess were Thomas Musgrave Joy and Edward Matthew Ward, R.A. After her marriage portraits were painted by A. Graefle, F. Hartmann, Ernst Hildebrand, and other leading German artists. Most of these remain in the private possession of her family in England and Germany. Many of them became well known in England in engravings. The picture by Hildebrand is in the HohenzoUem Museum at Berlin. In 1874 an important drawing was made by von Lenbach, as well as a portrait in oils in the costume of the Italian Renaissance by Heinrich von Angeli of Vienna, who then succeeded Winterhalter as favourite painter of Queen Victoria and her family. A half-length by the same artist (1882) is in the Wallace Collection in London, and another (1885) is in the Museum at Breslau. In 1894 Angeli painted a noble and pathetic portrait of the widowed empress, seated, at full-length, one version of which is at Buckingham Palace ; it has been mezzo-tinted by Borber. The crown princess is conspicuous in the large painting by Anton von Werner of 'The Emperor William I receiving the Congratulations of his Family on his Birthday,' which was presented to Queen Victoria at the Jubilee of 1887 by the British colony at Berlin (information kindly supplied by Mr. Lionel Cust). Among other German artists who portrayed her, Begas executed a very life-like bust (1883) and also the sarcophagus over her tomb in the Friedenskirche, Potsdam. A cartoon by 'Nemo' appeared in 'Vanity Fair' in 1884. Memorial tablets were placed in the English church at Homburg (1903) and in the St. Johanniskirche, Cronberg (1906). A bust by Uphues was erected in 1902 on the Kaiser Fredrich promenade at Homburg. A striking statue of the empress in coronation robes, executed by Fritz Gerth, was