George IV when Prince of Wales

Details

THOMAS ROWLANDSON (LONDON 1756-1827)
George IV when Prince of Wales
pencil, pen and grey ink and watercolour
6 5⁄8 x 4 3⁄8 in. (16.8 x 11.2 cm.)

Provenance

Sir William Augustus Fraser.
J. Leslie Wright, and by descent to his daughter
Mrs Cecil Keith.
with Agnew's, London.

Literature

B. Falk, Thomas Rowlandson: his life and art, 1949, repr. facing p. 21.
The Illustrated London News, 15 October 1949, p. 590.
A. Bury, ‘Old English watercolours and drawings in the collection of Mrs Cecil Keith’, OWCS Club, 1967, p. 14, pl. V.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of the J. Leslie Wright Collection of Masters of British Water-Colour, 6 October - 6 November 1949.
London, Arts Council, Three centuries of British watercolours and drawings, 1951, no. 150.
Worthing, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, English watercolours and drawings from the collection of Mrs Cecil Keith, 1963, no. 23.
London, Agnew’s, The watercolour collection formed by Mrs Cecil Keith, 1-25 May 1984, no. 110.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The present drawing clearly relates to John Raphael Smith's (1752-1812) mezzotint of King George IV as Prince of Wales, after Thomas Gainsborough. First published on 28 April 1783, it depicts the Prince full-length, in uniform, leaning against a horse. However, the present drawing, with its round cheeks and fleshy jowls, more closely resembles a 1789 version of the print, from which Rowlandson has taken the head and shoulders.

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