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Charles Wild (1781-1835)

Frogmore House: The Dining Room c. 1819

Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil | 20.1 x 25.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 922119

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  • A watercolour view of the Dining Room at Frogmore House, a large plain blue room with apsidal ends and a large table in the centre covered by a green cloth on a patterned carpet. Prepared for one of the plates in William Henry Pyne's History of the Royal Residences (1816-1819). Engraved by T. Sutherland, the print published 1.4.1819.

    Pyne's History of the Royal Residences was a three-volume publication which encompassed a number of royal residences, including Windsor Castle (vol. 1) and Buckingham House (vol. 2), presenting 100 hand-coloured engravings of exteriors and interiors accompanied by descriptive texts. The 100 watercolours which were engraved for the publication survive in the Royal Library; these watercolours are exactly the size of the image on the printed plates, and may perhaps have been intended as colour guides for the artists responsible for hand-painting the monochrome prints.

    Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste (London, 2004):

    Queen Charlotte’s Dining Room occupied the southern bow added to the garden front of Frogmore in 1804. According to Pyne, it was ‘fitted up in a style of elegant simplicity in conformity with the notions of Her Majesty’. The room was hung with portraits of the Queen’s family. Four overdoors are visible here, those on the left, by Ziesenis, depict Queen Charlotte’s brother, Charles, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (right, 402463), and sister-in-law, Frederica (left, 402466). On the right Queen Charlotte’s other brothers are depicted by Zoffany, Ernest of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (left, 406813) and Allan Ramsay, George of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (right, 406963). Over the mantle to the left we see Woge’s portrait of Queen Charlotte’s sister, Christiana of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (402813); on the right wall opposite hangs Allan Ramsay’s posthumous portrait of her mother, Elizabeth of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (403553), hanging between her sons.

    The marble chimneypiece, carved with masks and vines, was purchased in Rome in 1795 by Prince Augustus from the eccentric English sculptor John Deare; the frieze was carved by Deare and the chimneypiece had been designed by George Hadfield, another English artist working in Rome. Two other chimneypieces acquired at the same time were intended for Carlton House. Although the latter were confiscated by the French, the sale of this surviving chimneypiece - completed by Vincenzo Pacetti - was finalised in February 1800. The route by which it reached Frogmore is not known.
    Provenance

    Probably acquired by George IV

  • Medium and techniques

    Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil

    Measurements

    20.1 x 25.1 cm (sheet of paper)

  • Other number(s)
    Alternative title(s)

    The Dining Room at Frogmore.


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