A head and shoulders portrait of King Edward VII, seated, facing half to the left, in the mess uniform of an Admiral, wearing the riband and jewelled star of the Order of the Garter, star and neck badge of the Order of the Bath, and miniature orders and decorations A posthumous portrait commissioned by King George V. The head is taken from Cope’s three-quarter length portrait of Edward VII in ornate Garter robes exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907 (161) and owned by Lord Mountbatten of Burma (Broadlands?). A copy of this painting by Robert Swann was given to King George VI by Lord and Lady Mountbatten in 1940 (see RCIN 407147). George V’s diary records on Friday 3 March, 1911: ‘After luncheon Mr Cope brought me his picture of dear Papa which I am going to give to Dartmouth.’ References suggest that such a painting was given to Dartmouth, and that it was destroyed by fire, indicating that this painting is a version; however, they may be one and the same given the alteration from Garter robes to Admiral’s Uniform. Son of the artist Charles West Cope, a successful history and genre painter, Arthur Stockdale Cope trained at Carey's Art School and the Royal Academy schools. He undertook numerous prestigious portrait commissions, notably of Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales, George V, and Kaiser Wilhelm II (see RCINs 404539, 407425, 407679). He went on to establish his own portrait practice, exhibiting 288 works at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters between 1876 and 1935. In 1900 he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters; in 1910 he was elected Royal Academician; and in 1917 he was knighted. See also RCIN 403510 for earlier version of this portrait type, by Archibald Stuart Wortley after Cope, 1894. Payment of £105.-.- made from George V’s accounts 15/05/1911 (WRA/GVR/ Privy Purse/ June 1910/67)