Royal Presentation Portrait of Queen Alexandra, 1906

Queen Alexandra (Consort of Edward VII) was a noted dog lover and married into a family of noted dog lovers.  The resulting menagerie of canines which she accumulated as Princess of Wales was a diverse collection which rivalled even that of her royal mother-in-law Queen Victoria. There were Basset Hounds, Wolfhounds, Dachshunds, Collies, Samoyeds, Fox Terriers, Pugs, Pekingese, and Japanese Spaniels, all housed in luxurious kennels on the Sandringham estate. Though Queen Alexandra was devoted to all her dogs, there were a few that she considered her ‘personal pets’. These were generally ‘small fancy dogs’ that she could carry under one arm. An identical image to the present example in the Royal Collection (RCIN 2106334) dated 1904, identifies ‘Little Marvel’ by autograph inscription in Alexandra’s hand. The veranda with its tree-trunk supports suggests the location of the portrait to be the Duke and Duchess of Fife’s Mar Lodge near Linn of Corriemulzie at the top of Mar Lodge Brae as a replacement to its predecessor that was destroyed by fire in 1895.