George IV: Art and Spectacle
Sumptuous exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery looking at the life and collecting of George IV. The show started with some wonderful portraits of George’s siblings including some on copper by Peter Edward Stroehing. These were gentle, intimate pictures and made you want to go and look up what had happened to them all. There were also some wonderful cartoons of the time many of them collected by George himself. In the large gallery there were recreated decorative scheme with over the top furniture and ceramics. These were show with some of the full length portraits from the Waterloo cycle celebrating the victorious generals and monarchs, these included a wonderful portrait of Pope Pious VII by Thomas Lawrence. The third room looked in detail at Carlton House, given to George for his 21 st birthday, which he renovated and filled with objects and paintings, many acquired in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It was all very ornate but it was fascinating to see which pictures ...