Maingaud was a French artist who worked in Germany for the Elector of Bavaria, which is presumably how he came to the attention of the Hanoverians. His work resembles that of Philippe Mercier (1689-1760).

This is one of a group of three portraits of the children of George II (OM 514-6, 404984-6), which are certainly by Maingaud (two are signed) and must have been painted in England. They seem loosely to belong together: they are all first recorded in the Queen’s Apartments at Kensington Palace in 1818, though not side by side and are of different sizes and dates (two are dated - 1718 and 1721 - the third is of c. 1720). All three have a fanciful pastoral character, with in two cases the suggestion of an allegorical meaning. The sitters cannot always be identified but they seem all to depict groupings of the four eldest children – Frederick (1707-51), Anne (1709-59), Amelia (1711-86) and Caroline (1713-57). The next surviving child, William, was not born until 1721.

These two girls are not identified in the 1818 Inventory; they are probably the two eldest sisters, Anne and Amelia, shown as allegories of the the Good Government of the newly installed Hanoverian dynasty. Anne stands in Arcadian dress with an arm round a tree-trunk encircled by a vine. Amelia kneels and offers her a flower, dressed in Roman costume and holding the fasces (sticks bound together with an axe) the symbol of Justice and authority. The exact connotations of these symbols is difficult to determine, but they may be intended to suggest the importance of unity and family affection – that which binds the vine round the trunk and the sticks together.

Signed: 'Maingaud Pt [pinxit] 1718'