Portrait of George II (1727-1760), three-quarter-length, in military uniform, wearing the sash of the Order of the Garter

The son of Peter Boy the Elder, a miniature painter, Gottfried was born in Frankfurt in 1701. He became painter to the English court at Hanover and may also have worked in London for a time. This portrait of George II is the prime original of a type that gained some currency largely due to the sitter's reluctance to sit for his portrait. Boy also painted portraits of Frederick-Christian, Prince Elector of Saxony (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Philipp Adolph von Steinburg, the Hanoverian Minister in London (Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 21 June 1965, lot 35).