Queen Adelaide

Shee received the King’s commands to be in attendance at Windsor from 14 May 1836, in order to begin a full-length portrait of the Queen to be placed in the hall of the Goldsmiths’ Company. By 18 May he had received a second sitting, but he felt the ‘high approbation’ that had been expressed, was almost ridiculous in view of the small progress that he had made. The artist commented that the Queen presented difficulties as a subject ‘beyond anything I could have anticipated’, as she ‘particularly requests that the picture may not be flattered’. When the portrait was completed, the King was so pleased with its composition and execution that he retained it for himself. The artist was therefore commissioned by the Queen to produce another portrait for the Goldsmiths. This was completed by 24 November 1837 and is still in their Hall. Shee was paid £766. 10s. for the two paintings. Since the 1840s this portrait has hung on the Grand Staircase at Buckingham Palace as part of a dynastic sequence, paired with Lawrence's 'William IV' (OM 877, 405427). The Queen is shown wearing a feathered hat with a rich velvet crimson pelise trimmed with ermine over a white satin skirt and holding a handkerchief in her right hand.