26April 2023

Bringing India to Britain: Queen Victoria’s Indian Portraits and the Durbar Hall

Helen Rufus-Ward

Queen Victoria never visited India, but she commissioned Rudolf Swoboda to paint authentic portraits of her Indian subjects, calling them her “Beautiful Things” to decorate the corridors of her favourite palace, Osbourne House. India had come to her in Britain.

Helen Rufus-Ward

Helen Rufus-Ward is a published art historian and lecturer specialising in early Christian and Byzantine art.