Category:Queen Charlotte with her Two Eldest Sons (Johann Zoffany - Royal Collection)

This painting shows the Princes appearing only fractionally older than the painting of George, Prince of Wales and Frederick, later Duke of York at Buckingham House (Royal Collection), suggesting that both works must have been on the artist’s easel simultaneously. This might explain why the head of the Queen here and in the portrait on the wall of the other painting follow the same pattern. The setting here is also Buckingham House, but this time the King’s apartments on the ground floor garden façade; these were less redecorated and therefore preserved more of the character of the 1702-5 building campaign and can be seen in an anonymous view of the rear of the house painted at this time (Buckingham House, Royal Collection). Zoffany has placed the Queen’s dressing table directly in front of the back door at the centre of the garden façade — the glimpse of formal garden, the height of the aperture and the fenestration of the rooms visible beyond admit of no other explanation. This is clearly a very unlikely position for a dressing table, and suggests either that the Queen was temporarily occupying these rooms while her apartments above were being redecorated or that Zoffany has stage-managed the scene in order to achieve the effect of vistas opening in every direction. The character of the interior is more heterogeneous and in some cases old-fashioned than the other painting: dark-coloured panelling and door surrounds; pier glasses and table in the style of the 1730s; a French clock by Ferdinand Berthoud, with a case designed by Charles Cressent following a model of the 1730s; Chinese figures; an unidentified overdoor (perhaps depicting Ulysses and Nausicaa) resembling the work of Francesco Zuccarelli; a lace cover for the dressing table, supplied by Priscilla MacEune in 1762 for £1,079 14s; and similarly modern silver gilt toilet set.