Sir Thomas Lawrence, 'Queen Charlotte', 1789
About the work
Overview
Thomas Lawrence was only 20 when he painted this, one of the most brilliant of all royal portraits. Yet it failed to please either King George or Queen Charlotte and did not enter the Royal Collection. It remained on Lawrence’s hands and was in his studio sale after his death.
Lawrence painted Queen Charlotte in Windsor Castle – the Chapel of Eton College can be seen in the distance. The Queen was troubled by her husband’s protracted mental illness and was in no mood to sit for the young painter. The sitting on 28 September was probably the only one she gave him. Lawrence found it hard to animate her expression, and had to repaint her features several times.
Lawrence has given the pearl bracelets, decorated with the King’s portrait and his monogram, a significant role in the portrait, as if demonstrating the Queen’s unwavering loyalty to her husband amid his difficulties.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Queen Charlotte
- Artist
- Sir Thomas Lawrence
- Artist dates
- 1769 - 1830
- Date made
- 1789
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 239.5 × 147 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1927
- Inventory number
- NG4257
- Location
- Room 34
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 18th-century English Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2010Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and BrillianceNational Portrait Gallery (London)21 October 2010 - 23 January 2011Yale Center for British Art24 February 2011 - 5 June 2011
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2020Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonThe National Museum of Western Art18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020The National Museum of Art3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
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2021Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonNational Gallery of Australia5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021
Bibliography
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1831D.E. Williams, The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 2 vols, London 1831
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1846Engravings from the Choicest of Works of Sir Thomas Lawrence, London 1846
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1887C. Papendiek, Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte: Being the Journals of Mrs Papendiek, Assistant Keeper of the Wardrobe and Reader to Her Majesty, ed. V. Delves-Broughton, London 1887
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1892L. Mahon, Letters of … Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, London 1892
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1900R.S. Gower, Sir Thomas Lawrence, with a Catalogue of the Artist's Exhibited and Approved Works Compiled by Algernon Graves, London 1900
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1905A. Dobson (ed.), Diary and Letters of Madame d'Arblay, London 1905
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1906G.S. Layard (ed.), Sir Thomas Lawrence's Letter-Bag, London 1906
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1937H. Walpole, Horace Walpole Correspondence, ed. W.S. Lewis, 48 vols, New Haven 1937
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1946Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
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1946M. Davies, Paintings and Drawings on the Backs of National Gallery Pictures, London 1946
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1954K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London 1954
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1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
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1965K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Paulston 1965
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1977M. Levey, A Royal Subject: Portraits of Queen Charlotte (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 11 August - 2 October 1977), London 1977
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1979M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence (exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London), London 1979
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1979R. Ormond and M. Rogers (eds), Dictionary of British Portraiture, 4 vols, London 1979
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1980National Gallery, 'Anniversary Artists: Sir Thomas Lawrence', National Gallery News, 1980
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1983A. Ribeiro, A Visual History of Costume: The Eighteenth Century, London 1983
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1987R. Simon, The Portrait in Britain and America: With a Biographical Dictionary of Portrait Painters 1680-1914, Oxford 1987
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1989K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence: A Complete Catalogue of the Oil Paintings, Oxford 1989
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1992J.T. Hayes, British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries, Washington 1992
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1992A. Wilton, The Swagger Portrait: Grand Manner Portraiture in Britain from Van Dyck to Augustus John 1630-1930 (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 14 October 1992 - 10 January 1993), London 1992
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1993K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence: Portraits of an Age, 1790-1830 (exh. cat. Yale Center for British Art, 1993; Kimbell Art Museum, 15 May - 11 July 1993; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 3 August - 26 September 1993), Virginia 1993
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1994E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
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1995N. Houston, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Pra: A Critical Analysis of His Portraits of His Most Intimate Friends, BA Dissertation, Southampton Institute 1995
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1995R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVI, 1995, pp. 85-95
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1996C. Lerche, 'Die Herrenhausener Bildnisse von Johann Zoffany: Georg III und die Darstellung des "Patriot King"', Niederdeutsche Beiträge zur Kunstgeschichte, XXXV, 1996, pp. 99-136
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1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
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1998National Gallery, 'Travelling Companions: Drouais and Lawrence', National Gallery News, 1998
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2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2002J. Pomeroy, 'The Arbiters of Taste: Artists as Advisors in Early Nineteenth-Century England', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXXXIX/1597, 2002, pp. 263-72
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2002V. Vernier, 'The Portraits of Queen Charlotte at Queen's', Queen's College Record, 2002, pp. 69-78
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2005M. Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, New Haven 2005
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2005R. Hunter, 'With Royal Approval. The Figurehead of HMS Queen Charlotte', Apollo, CLXII/524, 2005, pp. 44-51
Frame
The eighteenth-century English frame, known as the ‘Queen Anne’ style, was popular between 1690 and 1725, and is ideally suited to full- or half-length portraits. Such a frame was added to Thomas Lawrence’s Queen Charlotte in the late 1950s or early 1960s. This frame is crafted from carved and gilt pinewood. On the back edge are twisted leaves alternating with a flower motif. The frieze features raked flutes and gadroons, diverging from a central acanthus-leaf motif towards the corner leaves. The sight edge has a stylised semi-flower and tongue motif.
Modified to fit the painting, the frame has since been fully regilded using oil size.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
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