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Coronation portraits of George III and Charlotte

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Coronation portraits of George III and Charlotte
ArtistAllan Ramsay
Year1762
MediumOil on canvas
LocationBuckingham Palace, London

Coronation portraits of the British monarch King George III and his consort Queen Charlotte are portrait paintings of 1762 by the Scottish artist Allan Ramsay depicting the King and Queen in their coronation robes.[1] Their coronation had taken place on 22 September 1761 at Westminster Abbey. The new king had inherited the crown from his grandfather King George II in 1760 at the age of 22.[2]

Ramsay was a notable portraitist and in 1761 was appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to the monarch, a position he held until his death in 1784 when he was succeeded by Joshua Reynolds.[3] He was working on this portrait from December 1761 and had finished by March 1762.[4] It is a popular image of George III, widely used in his lifetime and beyond. Today versions of it are in the Royal Collection, the National Portrait Gallery[5][6] and the Art Gallery of South Australia.[7] His depiction of the King was widely copied and featured in a number of works across the British Empire, including the American colonies. The original work is today in the Green Drawing Room of Buckingham Palace.[6]

Ramsay also painted a similar work showing Queen Charlotte in her coronation robes. The principal version of the portrait is on display at Buckingham Palace,[8] while versions of it are in the National Portrait Gallery and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.[9][10] In 1997, Mario de Valdes y Cocom, a genealogist and self-described "independent researcher",[11][12] seized on Charlotte's Allan Ramsay portrait as evidence of African ancestry, citing the Queen's "unmistakable African appearance" and "negroid physiogomy" [sic].[13] Valdes claimed that Charlotte had inherited these features from one of her distant ancestors, Madragana (born c. 1230), a mistress of King Afonso III of Portugal (c. 1210 – 1279).[14] Although popular among the general public, the claims are rejected by most scholars.[15][16][17][18][19]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Ingamells p. 196
  2. ^ Black p. 51
  3. ^ Black p. 166
  4. ^ "NPG 223; King George III - Portrait Extended - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
  5. ^ "King George III - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
  6. ^ a b "Allan Ramsay (1713-84) - George III (1738-1820)". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 28 February 2025.
  7. ^ "Allan Ramsay, King George III in coronation robes, c 1765?". Art Gallery of South Australia. Government of South Australia. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  8. ^ "Allan Ramsay (1713-84) - Queen Charlotte (1744-1818)". www.rct.uk. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  9. ^ "Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz". www.npg.org.uk. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  10. ^ "Queen Charlotte". Newfields. Retrieved 6 May 2025.
  11. ^ "Contributor Mario Valdes". Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 May 2023. Independent researcher specializing in still relatively unexplored areas of black history and the black image […] My PBS Frontline web site on […] I hope to elaborate more extensively […] I could go on […] I cannot help feeling
  12. ^ Ungoed-Thomas, Jon; Goncalves, Eduardo (6 June 1999). "Revealed: The Queen's Black Ancestors". The Sunday Times. Mario Valdes, a professional genealogist from Boston, Massachusetts
  13. ^ de Valdes y Cocom, Mario (1997). "The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families: Queen Charlotte". Frontline. Retrieved 23 February 2020.
  14. ^ Mario de Valdes y Cocom "The blurred racial lines of famous families – Queen Charlotte", PBS Frontline.
  15. ^ Linge, Mary (13 November 2021). "Real-life queen of 'Bridgerton' wasn't biracial – but she was a badass". New York Post. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  16. ^ "Explained: What we know of Queen Charlotte, claimed to be 'Britain's Black queen'". The Indian Express. 23 March 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  17. ^ Hilton, Lisa (28 January 2020). "The "mulatto" Queen Lisa Hilton Debunks a Growing Myth About a Monarch's Consort". TheCritic.co.uk. TheCritic. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  18. ^ Jill Sudbury (20 September 2018). "Royalty, Race and the Curious Case of Queen Charlotte". Acacia Tree Books. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  19. ^ Stuart Jeffries, "Was this Britain's first black queen?" The Guardian, 12 March 2009.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Black, Jeremy. George III: America's Last King. Yale University Press, 2008.
  • Ingamells, John. National Portrait Gallery Mid-Georgian Portraits, 1760–1790. National Portrait Gallery, 2004.
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