Later Stuart Portraits Catalogue

Queen Anne (1665-1714), Reigned 1702-14

2nd daughter of James II by his first wife, Anne, Duchess of York; educated in France before coming to England 1670; married 28 July 1683 George, Prince of Denmark; never in good health, she bore eighteen children, only one surviving infancy (William, Duke of Gloucester); succeeded William III as Queen 8 March 1702; d. 1 August 1714.

‘Queen Anne had a person and appearance not at all ungraceful, till she grew exceeding gross and corpulent. There was something of majesty in her look, but mixed with a sullen and constant frown that plainly betrayed a gloominess of soul and a cloudiness of disposition within’ (Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough).

‘What are you, poor mean-like mortal, thought I, who talks in the style of a sovereign? Nature seems to be inverted when a poor infirm woman becomes one of the rulers of the world’ (Sir John Clerk, 1706).


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685-1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, 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.