Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

1 portrait

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by Henry Bone; Sir William Beechey, 1801, based on a work of circa 1793 -NPG 6290 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

by Henry Bone, after Sir William Beechey
1801, based on a work of circa 1793
2 3/4 in. x 2 1/4 in. (70 mm x 57 mm) oval
NPG 6290

Inscriptionback to top

Signed bottom right: HBone. and inscribed verso: Her Most Gracious/Majesty:/Painted Aug. 1801 by/Henry Bone Enamel/painter to H.R.H. the/Prince of Wales.
The back of the casing engraved: H.M./Queen Charlotte/wife of George III/1744-1801 and by H. Bone.

This portraitback to top

An accomplished copy of a miniature now attributed to George Place, [1] which in turn derived from a Beechey sketch engraved by W. Evans in 1809 as ‘From an Original Picture by [Beechey] in his own Possession’. [2] Beechey’s portrait very probably dated from soon after his appointment as Portrait Painter to the Queen in 1793 and it anticipated the whole length of 1796. The Place miniature and NPG 6290 show a simpler dress and a slightly different hair styling.
Two more copies by Bone in the Royal Collection are also dated August 1801, [3] one identified by Walker as that exhibited RA 1802 (532); another dated 1801 is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (944.1868). [4] Another miniature version of the Beechey by W. Thomson is in the Royal Collection. [5]

Footnotesback to top

1) Formerly at Stanton Harcourt (illus. R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1992, fig.27), said to have been given by Queen Charlotte to the 2nd Earl Harcourt.
2) Evans’s drawing, dated 1808, sold Sotheby’s, 19 July 1979, lot 109. The Beechey sketch was probably that in the Beechey sale, Christie’s, 9 June 1836 (see R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1992, p 272).
3) R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1992, nos.746-47.
4) R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1992, p 272, lists further copies, incuding one illus. J. de Bourgoing, Minaturen, 1919, pl.18.
5) R. J. B. Walker, The eighteenth and early nineteenth century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, 1992, no.908.

Referenceback to top

Walker 1998
R. J. B. Walker, A Catalogue of paintings, drawings, engravings and sculpture in The Palace of Westminster compiled during 1959-77, 4 vols., 1988, [type-script in NPG archive], no.79.

Physical descriptionback to top

Grey eyes, greying hair, clear complexion, wearing a pearl necklace and a white dress.

Provenanceback to top

Hon Frederic H. A. Wallop (d. 1953), by whom lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum 1927-49; his nephew Alan Evans, by whom bequeathed to the National Gallery 1974; lent to the NPG until permanently transferred in 1994.

Exhibitionsback to top

Gillray, Tate, 2001 (100b).


This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

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