Paul Fischer, Portrait of King George IV as Prince Regent, 1823

Chicago:

Blythe Sobol, “Paul Fischer, Portrait of King George IV as Prince Regent, 1823,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 1, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.2306.

MLA:

Sobol, Blythe. “Paul Fischer, Portrait of King George IV as Prince Regent, 1823,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 1, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.2306.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

In 1823, Paul Fischer painted this miniature of King George IV (1762–1830) in his former role as prince regent. Adding a flourish to the back of the miniature, Fischer mimicked the elaborate verso autographs favored by Richard Cosway (1742–1821), a fellow miniaturist famously patronized by the royal. The portrait was based on Sir Thomas Lawrence’s (1769–1830) painting of the then-prince regent.¹ Fischer rarely painted his royal sitters from life; the Nelson-Atkins miniature appears to be a close copy of Fischer’s 1821 miniature, also after Lawrence, which officially joined the Royal Collection in 1843 when Prince Albert purchased it from the estate of George IV’s brother Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex.² The Nelson-Atkins miniature may also have been commissioned by or for another family member of the prince regent.³

This miniature depicts George IV as prince regent three years after he had left that role by acceding to the throne in 1820. Numerous versions of this miniature, and of Lawrence’s full-length portrait on which it is based, attest to George IV’s preference for this likeness. He frequently had it copied to hand out to favored courtiers and foreign dignitaries, continuing the long tradition of miniatures commissioned as diplomatic gifts. A close examination of variations in this group of miniatures by Fischer enables us to trace the shifting perception of George IV in the court of public opinion—particularly how George’s sensitivity to criticism changed how the artist depicted him over time.⁴ He was mortified by the reception of Lawrence’s 1815 portrait, which was mocked for its overly flattering depiction.⁵ In turn, Fischer adapted his own strategies over time, from an 1815 portrait that closely replicates the youthful appearance of the original to miniatures dated 1820 and 1823 that replicate the oil painting’s attire and pose while representing the monarch with increasingly heavy jowls, fuller cheeks, and drooping flesh. Fischer’s changing portrayals were a concession to both the inevitable reality of aging and the outcry against Lawrence’s portrait when it was first displayed in public.

Fischer carefully rendered the regalia, medals, and ribbons studded across George’s red coat; the regent had sat for Lawrence in his field marshal’s uniform.⁶ The wide blue sash across his chest proclaims his heritage as a descendant of the Hanoverian dynasty and also reflects a shared nationality with the artist, who deployed his Hanoverian connections to attain commissions from the British royal family. The ribbon of Hanover was not in Lawrence’s original portrait but was added to some copies after Lawrence, including the version now at the National Portrait Gallery in London (Fig. 1).

Fischer favored the rectangular format of Lawrence’s painting, cropping the full-length portrait to bust length to accommodate its far smaller size. A liberal amount of gum arabic mixed into the watercolor medium approximates the sheen and saturated coloring of oil paint. This was an increasing trend as the waning genre of miniature painting sought to compete with the richness, if not the scale, of full-scale oil portraiture.

Notes

1. The original version of this oft-duplicated portrait was commissioned by the marquess of Londonderry and sold at British Paintings 1500–1850, Sotheby’s, London, November 16, 1988, lot 73. However, Fischer’s miniature most closely resembles a workshop copy of this portrait now at the National Portrait Gallery, London (see Fig. 1), which depicts George IV wearing the blue sash of Hanover.

2. Vanessa Remington, Victorian Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (London: Royal Collection Enterprises, 2010) 1:248–49. Comparison of the Nelson-Atkins miniature with the example in the Royal Collection shows the impact of light exposure and prolonged display on the watercolors used by Fischer. The Nelson-Atkins miniature was painted only a few years later, but it is more faded.

3. Note the full set of portraits of George IV and his brothers by Fischer in the Royal Collection, after Sir William Beechey (1796–1856), Lawrence, and Thomas Phillips (1770–1845). Remington, Victorian Miniatures, 1:248–59.

4. As an urbane, discriminating royal with expensive tastes, George IV was lambasted by caricaturists and critics for his voluptuary lifestyle and likewise for his increasingly voluptuous appearance. This has been widely addressed in sources such as Kenneth Baker, George IV: A Life in Caricature (London: Thames and Hudson, 2005).

5. The Irish poet Tom Moore wrote scathingly of the portrait, “Lawrence’s Adonized George the Fourth is disgraceful both to the King and to the Painter; a lie upon canvas.” Lord John Russell, ed., Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1853), 3:349.

6. These included the Orders of the Bath, the Black Eagle, the St. Esprit, and the St. Andrew, as well as the Royal Guelphic Order, with the Order of the Golden Fleece clasped around his neck. Remington, Victorian Miniatures, 1:248.

With Miss Jackson’s, Tulsa, OK, by 1937 [1];

Purchased from Miss Jackson’s by Leonora Carr Phillips (1876–1966), 1937;

Given to her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, December 25, 1937–1958 [2];

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

Notes

[1] Miss Jackson’s department store was founded in Tulsa, OK, by Nelle Jackson (1872–1966) in 1910. Martha Jane Starr’s uncle Waite Phillips was a friend and patron of Nelle Jackson’s enterprise, and when he built the Philtower skyscraper in downtown Tulsa in 1927, his first tenant was Miss Jackson’s. Saundra Adams, “Miss Jackson’s Closes Its Doors for the Last Time,” KTUL, January 5, 2016, https://ktul.com/news/local/miss-jacksons-closes-its-doors-for-the-last-time.

[2] This miniature is the only identifiable work from the Starrs’ initial collection. It is listed in an early inventory as number 16, “King Geo[rge] IV—By Paul Fischer 1823. Gift Xmas 1937—Found Miss Jackson’s Shop by Mrs. Phillips.” This 1937 Christmas gift from Mrs. Starr’s mother was marked with an asterisk as one they planned to keep. Inventory, undated [1930s], Box 22, Folder 9, LaBudde Special Collections, University of Missouri—Kansas City.

After Sir Thomas Lawrence, King George IV, oil on canvas, ca. 1815, based on a work of 1815, 95 x 61 in. (241.3 cm x 154.9 cm), National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 2503.

Paul Fischer, George IV (1762-1820) when Prince Regent, 1820, watercolor on ivory laid on card, 4 6/16 x 3 4/16 (11.1 x 8.2 cm), Royal Collection, United Kingdom.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 209, as King George IV.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 264, as King George IV.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 209, p. 70, (repro.), as King George IV.