Views of Carlton House
When George was given Carlton House as his London residence, the building was ramshackle. He employed the architect Henry Holland to renovate the existing residence and add new wings. Holland favoured a fashionable French-inspired neo-classical style and worked on both the exterior of the building and its interior design. His elegant interiors were, however, largely lost after 1805, when George began to take the advice of the collector Walsh Porter. Porter introduced theatrical interiors to act as backdrops to George’s art collection and his parties. Carlton House was demolished in the mid-1820s, but its appearance is recorded in a series of watercolour views made shortly before.