Enduring Victoria: Iconoclasm and Restoration at the British Embassy in Tehran

Abstract

The Government Art Collection (GAC) shares British art, culture and creativity through displays in UK Government buildings worldwide. It is the most widely distributed collection of British art, displayed in 129 countries where it is seen by thousands of visitors each year, and makes an important contribution to UK cultural diplomacy. New acquisitions continually develop the diversity of representation within the collection to better reflect contemporary British society.The Collection holds a number of portraits of Queen Victoria that are displayed in UK diplomatic buildings in Moscow, Paris, Tehran, Tokyo, Tunis, Washington and New Delhi, amongst others.  Over two centuries, these portraits have silently witnessed Britain’s changing position in the world while recalling her former influence. The first part of this article will focus on George Hayter’s portrait of Queen Victoria, painted 1862-63, and displayed in the British Ambassador's residence in Tehran, Iran. This is one of many autograph copies of the artist’s original 1838-40 coronation portrait, currently on display at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. It features an unusual Persian inscription and was commissioned specifically for the new embassy building in Tehran, completed in 1875, shortly before Queen Victoria was entitled Empress of India, and has been displayed there ever since.The second part of the article will reflect on the display of art recently installed in the British Ambassador's Residence in Tehran, and the curatorial challenges this presented in a country with a long and troubled relationship with Britain. This new display was itself a consequence of an iconoclastic attack on Victoria’s image in 2011 when the embassy was stormed by Iranian protesters - the latest event in a turbulent history.At a time when the UK is having a profound national conversation about how it engages internationally, can Victoria’s image help to build cultural relations in diplomatic spaces or is it only a relic of an imperial past?