Queen Charlotte (of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) (1744-1818)
after Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1781 - 1799
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
84 x 59.75 in
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 207778
Caption
This picture is based on the original by Gainsborough of 1781, in the Royal Collection. As with other copies of Gainsborough’s portrait of the Queen, it has, in the past, been attributed to his nephew, Gainsborough Dupont, who scraped the mezzotint of it. However, stylistically it cannot be by him, and this a more straightforward and subdued copy than he would have done, and Gainsborough’s lively and individual brushwork has been tamed to a much greater degree. This is in spite of the fact that Northcote told James Ward that Dupont had had a hand in the original, before it was exhibited at the R.A. in 1781: "the drapery was done in the night by Gainsborough and his nephew Gainsborough Dupont; they sat up all night, and painted it by lamplight.”
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), after Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788). Based on the original by Gainsborough of 1781 in the Royal Collection, of which the artist's nephew scraped the mezzotint.
Provenance
Bought by Elsie Kipling, Mrs George Bambridge (1896 - 1976) in 1958 and by whom bequeathed to the National Trust together with Wimpole Hall, all its contents and an estate of 3,000 acres
Credit line
Wimpole Hall, The Bambridge Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
after Thomas Gainsborough RA (Sudbury 1727 - London 1788), artist previously catalogued as attributed to Gainsborough Dupont (bap.1754 - London 1797), artist