Like its pendant of George III (RCIN420656), this miniature is based on the full-length portrait of Queen Charlotte by Sir William Beechey (RCIN405423) which was painted in 1796 and exhibited at the Royal Academy the following year. The image was popular and there are a number of copies in the Royal Collection. William Grimaldi (1751-1830), the artist, has changed Beechey’s portrait slightly, replacing Frogmore House with the classical urn. The black mourning veil is probably a reference to the deaths of Charlotte’s brother Adolphus Frederick IV, duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and her sister Princess Christiane, both in 1794. The urn may also have a similar funerary connotation. The miniature of the king, set in an oval of diamonds in a pearl bracelet, was an engagement present and Queen Charlotte wears it in several other portraits.

Grimaldi was the son of the 7th Marquess Grimaldi and the grandson of Alessandro Maria Grimaldi, a Genoese nobleman and artist who had settled in England after the bombardment of Genoa in 1684. He succeeded to the title in 1800. Grimaldi was trained by his uncle Thomas Worlidge and worked for several years in Paris (1777-83), although he exhibited regularly in London from 1768 to 1830. He was appointed miniature painter in turn to the duke and duchess of York in 1791, and to George IV when prince of Wales in 1806, and then when king in 1824.

The miniature is signed and dated on the stone pedestal on the lower right Grimaldi / 1801 and inscribed by the artist on the vellum backing paper in ink: Her Majesty the / Queen. / Painted by – / Will : Grimaldi, Enamel & Miniature / Painter to their Royal Highnesses / the Duke & Duchess of York. / Albermarle Street 1801.