East Meets West
Extraordinary Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Royal Collection
Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) with her Two Eldest Sons
c.1765RCIN 400146
Like many royal consorts, Queen Charlotte (1744–1818), wife of George III (1738–1820), cultivated a taste in Eastern arts or 'chinoiserie'. One celebrated connoisseur, Horace Walpole (1717–97) noted how she had filled Buckingham House (now Palace) with Chinese ceramics, 'applying them above door-cases and fitting them on brackets with mirrors'. This portrait, by Zoffany, shows the queen at her dressing-table with two tall, Chinese painted, terracotta nodding-head figures displayed in the background. Such was the queen's interest in all things Chinese that she and her daughters spent many hours at Frogmore House in Windsor practising the Eastern-inspired art of lacquer painting.