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1 of 253523 objects
Augusta, Princess of Wales (1719-72) Signed and dated 1742
Oil on canvas | 240.0 x 157.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 405311
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The founder of the van Loo dynasty of painters was the Dutchman, Jacob van Loo (1614-70), who was obliged to flee Amsterdam after killing someone in a pub brawl. Having settled in Paris his son, Louis Abraham, and grandsons, Jean-Baptiste and Carle-Andre (1705-65), all made successful careers in France. In addition Jean-Baptise himself had two painter sons, Louis-Michel (1707-71) and Charles-Amedee-Philippe (1719-95). Jean-Baptiste trained as a religious and mythological painter in Italy with Benedetto Luti (1666-1724), before settling in Paris in 1719. He made a brief visit to England from 1737-42, where his success as a portrait painter annoyed Hogarth so much that it provoked him into taking up portraiture himself. This is one of a pair of portraits (OM 536-7, 405311-2) painted as a present for William Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1684-1764) and costing 60 guineas each. The sitter is shown wearing a richly laced dress under robes of State, holding a sprig of roses in her right hand, beside a table on which is her coronet and gloves.
Provenance
Acquired by George IV in 1809 presumably from the heirs of Lord Bath; in the First Room of the Prince of Wales's Apartments at Hampton Court in 1835 (no 476)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
240.0 x 157.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
Category
Object type(s)