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Allan Ramsay (1713-84)

Princess Elizabeth Albertina, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1713-61) c.1769

Oil on canvas | 127.7 x 101.7 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 403553

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  • Ramsay was brought to the attention of the royal family by one of his most important patrons, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, who in 1758 commissioned a portrait of George III when Prince of Wales, a version of which is in the Royal Collection (409153). Through an error John Shackleton (who died in 1767) was reappointed to the post of Principal Painter in Ordinary to George III on his accession in 1760. Ramsay, however, was given the title ‘one of His Majesty’s Principal Painters in Ordinary’ and assumed the duties of the King’s painter. The strength of Ramsay’s position in the King’s household is illustrated by George III’s refusal of Lord Eglinton’s request that he sit to Ramsay’s younger rival, Reynolds, with the words: ‘Mr Ramsay is my painter, my Lord.’ Lord Bute also introduced Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) to the King, but whereas Zoffany was at the outset of his career, Allan Ramsay was already fifty when he found himself superintending the productions of innumerable copies of his state portraits of the King and Queen (OM 996-7, 405307-8). This means that beyond these there are disappointingly few original portrait compositions by him in the collection – a group of Queen Charlotte and her two eldest children (OM 998, 404922) and three individual portraits of standard three-quarter-length format (50 x 40 inches) of members of her family (OM 999-1001, 404924, 406963 and 403553) of which this is one. These three were painted in 1767-9 and are probably the 'other portraits' for which Ramsay was paid £152 15s in February 1769.

    The sitter for this portrait is Queen Charlotte’s mother who had died very soon after the Queen’s departure for England. The features here were probably based on the portrait by Daniel Woge (1717-97) of the 1740s (Royal Collection 402454). A beautiful drawing for the arms playing with a fan (National Gallery of Scotland) suggest that Ramsay has had to work especially hard on the elegance and liveliness of the posture to make up for the absence of a living model for the face. The sitter is shown holding fan in her hands, left elbow resting on marble-topped table. She wears blue dress with lace, black stole around head and diamonds in hair; ermine-lined purple robe lies on table.
    Provenance

    Presumably painted for George III or Queen Charlotte; recorded in the Bedchamber at Buckingham Palace in 1790; it appears in the Dining Room at Frogmore House in Pyne's Royal Residences of 1819 (RCIN 922119).

  • Medium and techniques

    Oil on canvas

    Measurements

    127.7 x 101.7 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)

    145.6 x 120.6 x 8.0 cm (frame, external)

  • Alternative title(s)

    Elizabeth Albertina, Princess of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1713-61)

    Christina, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1735-94), previously identified as

    Christiana, Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1735-94), previously identified as

    Princess Elizabeth Albertine, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1713-1761)

    Elizabeth Albertine, Princess of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1713-61)


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