William, Duke of Gloucester (1689-1700), when a Child c. 1691
Oil on canvas | 148.5 x 101.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 404069
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Kneller was born in Lubeck, studied with Rembrandt in Amsterdam and by 1676 was working in England as a fashionable portrait painter. He painted seven British monarchs (Charles II, James II, William III, Mary II, Anne, George I and George II), though his portraits of Charles II are not longer in the collection, and in 1715 was the first artist to be made a Baronet (the next was John Everett Millais in 1885). A set of portraits of naval heroes was given by George IV to the Royal Naval Hospital in Greenwich in 1824. The sitter was the great hope of the Protestant Succession: he was born a few months after the 'Glorious Revolution' to Queen Mary's younger sister, Anne (later Queen Anne), and her husband, George of Denmark. He thus represented the only direct heir to the Stuarts (he was the grandson of James II) who was male and Protestant. His premature death in 1700 precipitated the Act of Settlement of 1701 and the selection of Sophia, Electress of Hanover (granddaughter of James I), as the legitimate heir to the throne. Sophia's son George I duly succeeded upon the death of Queen Anne in 1714. This charming infant portrait was probably painted in 1691 and shows the Duke wearing loose blue and white robes over left shoulder and white plumes on head; pointing to a small white dog lower right; seated upon red drapery; a generic palace courtyard is visible in the background.
Provenance
This is probably the overdoor in the Bedchamber of State at St James's Palace in 1710 (no 13); still in this position in 1720, it next emerges in the Queen's Private Bedchamber at Kensington Palace in 1736 and 1750; in the Privy Chamber at Kensington in 1818 (no 65); taken from there to St James's Palace in 1834.
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
148.5 x 101.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
137.2 cm (support (etc), excluding additions)
165.9 x 119.1 x 5.4 cm (frame, external)