MASP

The work George IV as Prince-Regent with the Badge of the Order of the Garter was presented to Christie’s by Lady Strathcona and Mount Royal, daughter of Donald Alexander Smith, 1st baron of Strathcona and Mount Royal (1820-1914). A prominent British politician with strong ties to Canada, Donald was also president of the Bank of Montreal. It is not possible to determine if this piece was in the ownership of his family from the time of the commission, as it was found in an auction in Venice in the early post-war period. The portrait represents George IV, prince regent since 1811 (when George III was officially declared insane and blind) and king of Great Britain and Ireland as from 1820. The model of the work on display at Masp is the huge portrait (295 x 203 cm.) housed in the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, in Dublin, a gift of the regent to the city and destined to the Mansion House in c.1818. (Garlick 1989, p. 193, n. 325d). The Dublin painting is a life-size portrait of the king donning the attire and the insignia of The Most Noble Order of the Garter, with his hand resting on the Table des Grands Capitaines, commissioned in 1806 by Napoléon and offered by Louis XVIII to the prince regent in 1817. It is difficult to assess with certainty the degree of direct participation of Lawrence in cases of derivation like this one. Although the superior quality speaks in favor of at least a partial authorship of the work, the fact that this is merely a bust suggests quite strongly that it is a studio product, perhaps with the master’s direct participation. As Garlick writes about the copy in Dublin: “this portrait established the type for the official portraits of George IV as Regent and King. After his accession the hat of the Garter is replaced by the crown”. And concludes: “A large number of replicas or part-replicas, copies, and variants were produced, and the 6th Duke of Devonshire recalled (Handbook to Chatsworth, 1845) going with William IV to a room in Kensington Palace which was full of them. In a few cases Lawrence painted the greater part himself, but in the majority the work is wholly or largely by studio assistants”.

— Unknown authorship, 1998

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