Prince Charles hails Victoria and Albert's love of art

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert formed a "wonderful partnership" which produced a collection of artwork that can be enjoyed by the nation, the Prince of Wales said.

Prince Charles's comments came as he opened a major exhibition on Thursday which showcases for the first time the royal couple's enthusiasm for paintings, sculpture, jewellery and furniture.

More than 400 pieces from the Royal Collection are on display at the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace at an event which will challenge perceived ideas of Queen Victoria as the grieving widow of 40 years. Sensuous paintings and sculptures showing the nude female form and private artwork shared between the Monarch and her husband reveal the Queen as a passionate young woman.

With the impressive paintings hanging around him, the heir to the throne told gathered guests: "As one looks about the exhibition, it becomes obvious that the Queen and Prince Albert were people whose love of the arts was absolutely central to their lives, and to their marriage."

Speaking about his great-great-great-grandparents, he added: "They celebrated every birthday, every anniversary and Christmas with gifts of art, they studied art together, they played music together and they seem to have gained enormous pleasure, as I have done, from the company of artists and musicians." The artworks were drawn from royal palaces across the country, including Windsor Castle, Victoria's Isle of Wight home, Osborne House, and the Queen's Scottish retreat of Balmoral, with a third of the objects exchanged as gifts between the royal couple to mark special occasions.

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the rarely displayed painting known as "the secret picture" by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, which Queen Victoria commissioned in 1843 as a surprise present for Prince Albert's 24th birthday.

In the oval image, which bears a striking resemblance to Prince Charles's niece Princess Beatrice, the Queen is shown in what many Victorians would have described as a sensual pose with a bare neck and her long hair flowing freely.

She also commissioned or bought for Prince Albert a number of large paintings showing semi-naked women.

Prince Charles is chairman of the Royal Collection Trust and has taken a keen interest in the work of curators, conservators and other staff who have spent three years producing the exhibition.

Some of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's descendants, and distant relatives of Prince Charles, were also at the exhibition opening - Andreas, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and his son, Prince Hubertus, a banker living in New York, who was joined by his wife, Princess Kelly.

Prince Charles has already had a private viewing of the exhibition and has been interviewed by broadcaster Fiona Bruce for a BBC programme about the art event, which will be screened tomorrow.

The exhibition opens to the public next Thursday and runs until October 31.