'The Secret of England's Greatness' (Queen Victoria Presenting a Bible in the Audience Chamber at Windsor)
Artist: Thomas Jones Barker (English, 1813-1882)
Date: ca. 1862-1863
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: © National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Description
This is an imagined scene, with real historical figures. Queen Victoria is shown at Windsor Castle receiving an exoticized African ambassador, to whom she is presenting a fine Bible. The Bible is suspended in motion between the hand of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and that of the African man. Although unnamed the African envoy is probably based on Ali bin Nasr, governor of Mombasa, who attended Victoria's coronation in 1838 and returned again in 1842, together with his young interpreter Mohammed bin Khamis. His attire is that of the Omani rulers of east Africa.
The scene depicted is based on a popular but unfounded anecdote current in the 1850s. When asked by a diplomatic delegation how Britain had become so powerful, 'our beloved Queen sent him, not the number of her fleet, not the number of her armies, not the account of her boundless merchandise, not the details of her inexhaustible wealth … but handing him a beautifully bound copy of the Bible, she said 'Tell the Prince that this is the Secret of England's Greatness'. In Victorian times, ‘greatness’ was linked to a sense of Christian duty. This helped justify British colonialism as a 'civilising mission', supporting the belief that religious conversion brought about global improvement.