Victoria's Sketchbook

Marina Warner's book 'Queen Victoria's Sketchbook' Macmillan 1979 includes a summary of Richard Westall's tutorship of Princess Victoria. It also includes what Marina Warner terms 'a most attractive portrait' of the Princess.
My father corresponded with Marina Warner and was sent an offprint of a paper given to The Royal Society on 20 Feb 1980. My father wrote to me on 6 June 1980 : "I have been in correspondence with Marina Warner about her book 'Queen Victoria's Sketchbook' to point out that William Westall ARA was Richard Westal's half brother, not his father as she had stated. She replied very kindly & thanked me for the correction; she also enclosed a printed copy of a lecture to the Royal Society in which she said they were step brothers. I suppose I must now write tactfully & point out the difference between a step brother & a half brother - the latter being correct as they were blood relations having the same father."
I would also like to point out that Victoria was not Richard's 'first and only pupil' as she states in her book as William Westall and William James Bennett had previously been Richard's pupils. In her Royal Society paper Warner does include William as one of Richard's pupils.
In her paper Warner remarks that Richard's 'style was profoundly marked by his early training as a silver engraver for, as a draughtsman, his line is exceptionally clear and simple.' She also comments that 'when we look at his (Richard's) face drawn by his friend Lawrence when Westall was in his late twenties, at the startling concentration of his brow, the unruly romantic hair, the curve of a sensuous mouth, it becomes clear that Princess Victoria was taught by someone as fervent and lively a temperament as hers. But by the time he came to Kensington Palace, the years had somewhat quenched the fiery protoromanticism of the youth.' Warner suggests that 'Westall's love of neo-classical profiles and strong expressionist gestures shaped the Princess's technique very markedly'.
During a discussion at the end of her lecture Warner mentions that Victoria was thirteen or fourteen when she copied Westall's Bible illustrations.