Portrait of King George IV as Prince Regent
Artist
Henry Bone
(English, 1755 - 1834)
Artist After
Thomas Lawrence
(English, 1769 - 1830)
Date1821
MediumEnamel on gold;
Gold alloy bezel
DimensionsSight: 1 3/16 × 15/16 inches (3.02 × 2.38 cm)
Framed: 1 5/16 × 1 1/16 inches (3.33 × 2.7 cm)
Framed: 1 5/16 × 1 1/16 inches (3.33 × 2.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Starr and the Starr Foundation, Inc.
Object numberF58-60/134
InscribedInscribed on verso: "His Majesty / London July 1821 / Painted by Heny. / Bone R.A. Enl. / Painter to the / King L[?]"
Inscribed with monogram on recto, right: "HB"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionPortrait miniature of a man wearing a red military coat before a brown background.Exhibition HistoryThe Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 167, as His Majesty, George IV.
Open-necked shirts and unpowdered curls abounded in the Regency era (about 1795–1837). A period in Britain associated with the rise of King George IV and the work of novelist Jane Austen, this time left its mark on fashion, too. The poet Lord Byron set the tone for the casual elegance of the period, and many men followed his example. He wore his collars open and his hair short, letting his curls cluster at the front. The period also witnessed the rise of the dandy who prided himself on his immaculate linen shirts with high collars and tailored dark coats. Although tastes evolve, modern-day equivalents of the dandy persist.
Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;
Their gift to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 167, p. 57, (repro.), as His Majesty, George IV.
Richard Walker, “Henry Bone’s Pencil Drawings in the National Portrait Gallery,” Volume of the Walpole Society 61, no. 218 (1999): 327.
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