-
1 of 253523 objects
Princess Elizabeth Caroline (1740-1759) 1754
Pastel on vellum | 39.4 x 30.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 400902
Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-89)
Princess Elizabeth Caroline (1740-1759) 1754
Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-89)
Princess Elizabeth Caroline (1740-1759) 1754
Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-89)
Princess Elizabeth Caroline (1740-1759) 1754
-
In 1754 Augusta, Princess of Wales, commissioned a pair of portraits of herself and her late husband, Frederick Prince of Wales (eldest son of George II who had died in 1751), and a series of portraits of herself and her nine children, from Jean-Etienne Liotard. Both sequences were to be in pastel; the portraits of the parents were on paper, those of the children were on vellum, and were slightly smaller in scale. Liotard, a portrait painter who specialised in pastels and miniatures, was a well-established and cosmopolitan figure by the time of Augusta’s commission. He was born in Geneva and worked in Paris, Italy, Constantinople and Vienna. In the 1740s he had been commissioned to produce portraits of the Empress Maria-Theresa in Vienna, and then in 1749, having been introduced at the French court, portraits of Louis XV and his five daughters. The pastel portrait was extremely popular in the eighteenth century. Although it lacked the grandeur of oil painting, pastel was able to capture subtle tonal qualities; none the less it took an artist of Liotard’s stature to produce the illusion of living flesh. This portrait of Augusta's second daughter shows the sitter wearing as pink and blue patterned dress, the bodice entirely covered with white lace, her blonde hair dressed up with flowers at the top.
Provenance
Commissioned in 1754 by Augusta, Princess of Wales; recorded in store at Carlton House in 1819 (no 450)
-
Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
-
Medium and techniques
Pastel on vellum
Measurements
39.4 x 30.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
56.7 x 47.1 x 5.5 cm (frame, external)
Category
Object type(s)