Upon first glance, this painting depicts a woman with blonde curls, big blue eyes and rosy cheeks, in a red velvet dress, an example of lingering Renaissance influence in Georgian fashion and a matching red hat with a large, white feather.
The woman portrayed in this painting is Caroline of Brunswick, the Queen and estranged wife of the future King George IV, the fourth king of the Hanover dynasty, who was still Prince of Wales when this work was painted. This depiction of Caroline bears a striking resemblance to Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of Caroline’s daughter, Princess Charlotte, as a little girl. Lawrence, the top portrait painter of the Regency era, also created a dual portrait of the mother and daughter in 1801, three years before he created this work. On the left of Caroline is a bust that she sculpted of her father, the Duke of Brunswick.
One might consider Caroline the Princess Diana of the Georgian era. Although George IV (Prince of Wales upon his marriage) was determined to divorce Caroline, even launching an investigation into rumours about her alleged adultery and an illegitimate child, Caroline asserted her position as queen and was wildly popular with the British people, who in turn despised the newly crowned George IV.
This regal, somewhat uncomfortable, portrayal of Princess Caroline of Brunswick by Sir Thomas Lawrence, created in 1804, is far more than a royal portrayal; it offers a visual statement about identity, defiance, and isolation. Painted in eye-catching red (the colour of danger and indiscretion), the lavish dress and artfully dramatic pose present Caroline as an almost fully-fledged royal figure. This image is undermined, however, by the manner in which her wedding ring is thrust into darkness, and her gaze, while bold, is distant, tinged with both resilience and suspicion, rather than reassurance. The artist includes a bust of Caroline’s father but omits any hint of the Prince of Wales, her husband, an indication of Caroline’s profound personal and social estrangement. As one scholar of art history argues, Lawrence often emphasizes Caroline’s “defiant mood”, for instance after she was separated from her husband, a mood reflective of her ostracized position at court. More generally, this is a portrait of an individual, presented composedly, with a degree of self-reliance, yet fundamentally removed from any sense of marital bond.
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By: Jyotirmaya Samanta
My interpretation of the artwork "Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel" is the depiction of the queen as a women with a high-rank and power in her time. The color of the garments worn represents her status, as red colors in fabric were sold at a high price and were difficult to find. Nevertheless, the fact that the queen was painted with a red hat on her head, an unusual characteristic for portraits at her time, represent her strong character and the societal change in relation to the influence of women.
