A painting made after one of the first pictures of the new Italian royal couple after the assassination of King Umberto I. TM King Vittorio Emanuele III and Queen Elena, born Princess of Montenegro. The couple met for the first time at the Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in Moscow, in 1896, and married that same year in October, in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli, in Rome. The discussion of a possible marriage between the Prince of Naples, Vittorio Emanuele, and Princess Maud of the United Kingdom had been abandoned due to the relentless of the British Court to let the Princess convert to the Catholic Church. Princess Elena, daughter of Prince Nicola of Montenegro and Princess Milena, converted to the Catholic Church on board the ship that brought her from Montenegro, thus being already a Catholic when she set foot on Italian soil to be married to the Prince of Naples.

In this painting the new Queen wears some of the presents given to her on the occasion of her wedding by her parents-in-law, the King and Queen of Italy. The diamond and emerald tiara was ordered at Royal Jeweller Musy for the Princess and given to her by her husband, the Prince of Naples. The five emeralds came from one of Queen Margherita’s bracelets, and the diamonds from various jewels of her personal collection. The emerald necklace is the one described before and was a present of Queen Margherita to her daughter-in-law.

Another picture of Queen Elena of Italy in which she wears the diadem presented to her by her father-in-law, King Umberto I, as a wedding gift. The then Princess of Montenegro actually wore this tiara, also a creation of Musy, on her wedding day. For its creation, several jewels of Queen Margherita’s collection were broken. The diadem, along with the one of diamonds and emeralds described above, was later sent to the Italian Prime Minister on the day that Italy declared war to pay for war expenses. After the war the Queen only wore the Jewels of the Crown.

The young Prince Umberto, Prince of Piemonte, is held by his mother, Queen Elena of Italy. On the left, the Duchess Mother of Genoa, mother of Queen Mother Margherita, who is seen on the right of the picture.

HM Queen Elena pictured in a great splendour, most likely more than what she would like. The character of the Queen was in total contrast to the one of the first Queen of Italy, her mother-in-law. While Queen Margherita loved jewellery and the splendours of the Court, Queen Elena preferred a quieter, intimate life, although she could not get much of this during her husband’s reign. A good insight into the Queen’s character is given by her decisions when World War I broke: she donated many of her personal jewels to pay for the war and installed an hospital at the Quirinale.

As in the picture above, here Queen Elena is seen wearing the Jewels of the Crown ordered by Queen Margherita at Musy. The tiara was described above but a reference must be made to the magnificent stomacher worn by the Queen. Composed by 679 diamonds, it was ordered in August 1868 by Queen Margherita and at the centre (although in this painting it is depicted as having an emerald) it has a beautiful rose coloured diamond.