Enlightened royal patronage: an exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, London, reveals the full extent of the artistic patronage of George III and Queen Charlotte

Apollo, July, 2004 by Charles Cator

George III was a monarch of the Enlightenment and the superb exhibition at the Queen's Gallery demonstrates not only the extraordinarily wide range of his interests and enthusiasm bur also the way he, as an enlightened ruler, both inspired and mirrored the interests of his subjects. The sense of harmony and balance which pervades the galleries reflects the harmony in the taste of the King and Queen and the balance between domestic and public, private and state which forms a leitmotif of the exhibition.

Although George III's grandfather and great-grandfather had little interest in the arts, his father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, was an enthusiastic patron, with a particular interest in architecture and music. Under the wise guidance of John, third Earl of Bute, chosen by his mother, Augusta, Princess of Wales as his 'tutor', the young prince developed an extremely refined taste and patronised many of the same craftsmen as his mentor.

Some of his most significant acquisitions were made before, or very shortly after, he succeeded to the throne in 1760, aged twenty-two. In 1762 the King purchased, with the help of James Smart Mackenzie, Lord Bute's brother, the collection of Joseph Smith, British consul in Venice, as well as the collection of Old Master drawings formed by Cardinal Alessandro Albani. The consul Smith collection is justly celebrated for its dazzling series of Venetian views by Canaletto, two of which are included in the exhibition, together with other Italian views by Canaletto and works by Sehastiano Ricci, Francesco Zuccarelli and Pietro Longhi.

Consul Smith's collection also contained a spectacular group of drawings by the artists he favoured--and these complemented perfectly Cardinal Albani's seventeenth-century Italian and French drawings, acquired by the King with the help of Robert Adam's younger brother James. The exhibition's brilliant selection of drawings from the collections of Consul Smith and Cardinal Albani is enhanced by highlights from the drawings purchased for the King by his librarian Richard Dalton.

The King's accession in 1760 and his marriage in September 1761 to Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz led to a superb series of portrait commissions, both imposing state images and intimate domestic scenes, many depicting their growing family. The King's official portrait, painted in 1761/62 by Allan Ramsay, to whom he had been introduced by Lord Bute, shows the young monarch in a brilliantly depicted gold-brocade suit and ermine lined blue velvet cloak surrounded by the emblems of power, as young, vigorous and, above all, human. This balance between the image of kingship and the humanity of the ruler was maintained throughout the reign; as Christopher Lloyd says in his essay in the exhibition catalogue, 'George III was the first modern monarch'.

The King's marriage, and his acquisition of Buckingham House in 1762, set in motion a flurry of commissions--although it is fascinating to see how furniture which must have been supplied to Frederick, Prince of Wales, appears to have been reused at Buckingham House and features both in Zoffany's famous portrait of Queen Charlotte at her dressing table at Buckingham House with her two eldest sons, painted in about 1765, and in his 1771 portrait of the King.

The early years of the reign saw a splendid series of commissions for the royal cabinetmaker, William Vile, for both Buckingham House and St James's Palace. Although it is his name that has been most closely associated with the King and Queen's taste in furniture, certainly in the early twentieth century, he retired in 1764 and was succeeded as cabinetmaker to the Great Wardrobe by his pupil John Bradburn. Vile's pieces encapsulate the taste for restrained richness that is one of the great glories of English cabinetmaking and it is exciting to see so many of his masterpieces displayed together. A number of pieces have been restored in the Royal Collection's Marlborough House workshops specially for the exhibition. Early-twentieth-century restoration, particularly to the surfaces, has been removed in favour of a more natural finish, closer to the original.

The splendid architectural organ case, almost certainly made for Frederick, Prince of Wales, probably by Benjamin Goodison, and altered for Queen Charlotte in 1763 by Vile, is displayed for the first time in its restored state. Despite the justified fame of Vile's royal pieces, there is a tantalising lack of documentation for some of the most celebrated pieces--for example the series of ten cabinets apparently made to contain the rolls from the Goodison/Vile organ. Many of Vile's commissions were for Queen Charlotte and she appears to have favoured unusually elaborate carving and rich inlaid decoration, perhaps a taste derived from her German upbringing.

Vile's superb jewel cabinet, supplied to the Queen in 1762 at the huge cost of 132 [pounds sterling] 10s to house the magnificent jewels she had received from the King on their marriage, is justly celebrated as one of the greatest pieces of eighteenth century English furniture, combining brilliantly executed ivory marquetry and sculptural carved detail. But a less well known commode, almost certainly supplied by Vile to Queen Charlotte before 1764, is another masterpiece of English cabinet-making. It has superbly figured timber, majestic curvaceous profile and spectacular mounts that echo in gilt-bronze the carved detail on the jewel cabinet.