King George III

1 portrait

King George III, by Unknown artist, before 1809 -NPG 6288 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue

King George III

by Unknown artist
before 1809
1 1/4 in. x 7/8 in. (32 mm x 22 mm) oval
NPG 6288

Inscriptionback to top

The locket case engraved verso: George 3/was born 4.June 1738./ascended the British Throne/25 Octr. 1760./The/Grand National Jubilee/celebrated 25. Octr. 1809

This portraitback to top

The inscribed case may imply NPG 6288 was produced for the 1809 Jubilee, but it has somewhat the air of a caricature and ultimately derives from such accessible sources as the Wedgwood medallion of 1776 or the medal by J. G. Hancock of 1801. A comparable bust appears in an unattributed miniature in the Draper Gift, Kenwood. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) Miniatures at Kenwood, 1997, no.33.

Physical descriptionback to top

Dark eyes, white powdered wig, improbably giving way to a black queue; red cloak trimmed with ermine and gold, with the blue ribbon of the Garter.

Provenanceback to top

Hon Frederic H. A. Wallop (d. 1953), by whom lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum; 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 (100c).


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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