There are 35 paintings by 20 different artists hanging on the walls of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. This portrait of King George III (1738-1820) decorates the Saloon alongside its pair, of Queen Charlotte (408537). They are the only two works in the Dolls’ House painted on canvas, the weave of which is very fine to suit the miniature scale. 

Queen Mary was directly descended from George III and Queen Charlotte, on her mother’s side. Proud of this connection, and believing she resembled Queen Charlotte, Mary collected many works of art that once belonged to her Hanoverian predecessors. Including their full-length portraits in the Dolls’ House was a clear act of homage.

The painter of this work, Scottish artist Harrington Mann, was already well established as a society portraitist. For this commission, however, he simply made a scaled-down version of the Royal Academy’s 1779 portrait of George III by Joshua Reynolds (of which there were already several copies in the Royal Collection). In the original work – and visible in Mann’s dark, somewhat hazy copy – the King appears seated in the Coronation chair, wearing Robes of State and holding the sceptre in his right hand. St Edward's Crown, which rests on a cushion to the left of the Royal Academy portrait, cannot be discerned in Mann’s copy.