There are 35 paintings by 20 different artists hanging on the walls of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House. This portrait of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) decorates the Saloon alongside its pair, of George III (408536). 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 Queen Charlotte by Joshua Reynolds (of which there was already a copy in the Royal Collection). In the original work – and visible in Mann’s dark, somewhat hazy copy – the Queen appears seated on a dais, almost in profile, wearing a gold dress and the Robes of State. In Mann’s version, the canopy above her and the little crown perched on her hair can barely be discerned.