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Francis Ayscough with the Prince of Wales (later King George III) and Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany

1 of 194 portraits of King George III

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© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Francis Ayscough with the Prince of Wales (later King George III) and Edward Augustus, Duke of York and Albany

by Richard Wilson
oil on canvas, circa 1749
81 1/2 in. x 101 1/2 in. (2070 mm x 2578 mm)
Given by Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd, 1900
Primary Collection
NPG 1165

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Artistback to top

  • Richard Wilson (1714-1782), Landscape painter. Artist or producer associated with 6 portraits, Sitter associated with 8 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This portrait depicts the sons of Frederick, Prince of Wales, during a lesson by their tutor Francis Ayscough. Ayscough had earlier acted as Clerk of the Closet to the boys' father and to the right of George a large volume with the Prince of Wales's feathers on the binding rests against a globe. More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

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Events of 1749back to top

Current affairs

Royal Fireworks in Green Park to celebrate the Peace of Aix-La-Chapelle. 10,000 rockets are let off at a cost of £8,000. Composer George Frideric Handel's accompanying Music for the Royal Fireworks is performed for the first time.
George II is introduced to William Ansah Sessarakoo the 'Prince of Annamaboe'. The son of a wealthy chief from the West African Gold Coast, he had been taken prisoner and made a slave in the West Indies.

Art and science

Horace Walpole buys the house and grounds which he will transform into his neo-Gothic fantasy, Strawberry Hill, in Twickenham, London.
Henry Fielding publishes his comic novel Tom Jones.
John Cleland's erotic novel Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) is published. The author is released from debtor's prison but arrested again later in the year and charged with corrupting the King's subjects.

International

George II grants a charter to Ohio Company to settle Ohio valley in the American colonies.
British settlement of Halifax, Nova Scotia is founded.
Sugar planters found Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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