The Royal Collection holds an important group of paintings by George Stubbs; all of them were acquired by George IV when Prince of Wales and all of them (with the exception of OM 1115, 400512) were sent in 1822 from Carlton House to the King’s Lodge (later Royal Lodge) in Windsor Great Park, presumably as an appropriate setting for sporting paintings.

In 1793 Thomas Allwood presented a bill to the Prince for £110 16s, for ‘Carving & Gilding eight Picture frames of half length size [40 x 50 inches] for sundry Pictures painted by Mr Stubbs’. This is one of thirteen paintings in the collection of these dimensions (40 x 50 inches), all in identical frames and all dated between 1790 and 1793 (OM 1109-12, 1115-8, 1122-6, 400142, 400106, 400995, 400997, 400512, 400560, 400994, 400587, 400510, 400562, 400943, 405001, 400549). It is not possible to say which were the eight mentioned in Allwood’s bill, and how they might have been grouped or paired off; but they all seem to have been conceived loosely as a set.

The Prince of Wales is here presented as a man of fashion, riding his magnificent chestnut horse and walking his two dogs. The star of the Garter is the only badge of rank in his costume, which otherwise announces his taste and awareness of the latest fashion. He wears a blue cut-away frock coat with buff breeches, the ‘uniform’ of Members of the Whig Opposition lead by Charles James Fox (1749-1806). The tall hat, curled and powdered hair, starched white cravat, and soft leather boots were also fashionable with macaronis, as dandies of the day were called, who also sought to look as thin as possible (something which the Prince, in real life, found increasingly difficult). Queen Caroline, George IV’s estranged wife, later said of her husband: ‘I ought to have been the man and he the woman to wear the petticoats… he understands how a shoe should be made or a coat cut… and would make an excellent tailor, or shoemaker or hairdresser but nothing else.’

Though it looks as if the Prince is riding in open countryside this is in fact Hyde Park, looking over the Serpentine towards Apsley House (built for the 2nd Earl Bathurst by Robert Adam in c.1772-8) and Westminster Abbey.

Signed and dated: Geo: Stubbs pinx: / 1791

Text adapted from The Conversation Piece: Scenes of fashionable life, London, 2009