Name: Unit 07 – Picturing the Mighty

Class:
Date: Worksheet no 22

1. Queen Victoria (1819-1901), p. 82

Read the text and answer the questions.

A. Match the following words with their synonym.

fame (l. 1) • • means of

communication
figure (l. 2) • • reign
medium (l. 6) • • celebrity
charted (l. 8) • • include
rule (l. 9) • • many
spanning (l. 10) • • puritanical
decades (l. 10) • • person
countless (l. 11) • • a ten-year period
prudish (l. 16) • • in secret
behind the scenes (l. • • marked
19)
underscore (l. 23) • • goddess
deity (l. 29) • • show, display

B. Find keywords showing that Queen Victoria was ahead of her time when it came to spreading her
image worldwide.
“first public figure to exploit its promotional potential”, “the earliest […] international celebrity of the
photograph world”, “She surely recognized the power of photography” …

C. Complete the following sentences in your own words according to the context.
Use exercise A to find synonyms.

1. Queen Victoria wanted official portraits of her to be distributed everywhere to symbolize the
prominence of the monarchy.

2. She also wished people to see her surrounded by her close family because show everyone that she
was not severe and puritanical but rather caring and warm with her family.

3. Queen Victoria’s official portraits helped her to be considered outside of the British Isles because
they reinforced her supremacy, her visual identity creating an aura of goddess.

D. Use questions A, B, and C to explain Queen Victoria’s passion for photography.

Queen Victoria's passion for photography stemmed from several things. Firstly, her portraits symbolized
the “stature of the monarchy”. Secondly, they showed that she was not, as one might expect, stern and
prudish, but warm and caring with her family. Moreover, they allowed her to have a worldwide influence.
In 1877, she was proclaimed Empress of India. Her portraits were the “symbol of the monarchy, her visual
identity creating the aura of a deity”. This reinforced her hegemony all over the world. Victoria was the
first public figure to exploit the promotional potential of photography, and the first celebrity to be
photographed.