Portret van zes kinderen van George III en Charlotte van Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1778 - 1779

This mezzotint print of the six children of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was made by Valentine Green, likely in the 1770s or 1780s. This image is a study in the politics of imagery. The royal family was under enormous pressure to produce heirs and secure the line of succession. But this image is also a commentary on childhood. The trappings of wealth are here - fine clothes, an elaborate interior – but so too is the paraphernalia of play: a toy drum, a ball, and a cup-and-ball game held by the young prince on the left. Consider the formal conventions of the time; the children arranged in a pyramidal composition, the textures rendered through the technique of mezzotint. Think, too, about the conventions of royal portraiture in England at this time. The print is, in many ways, conservative. Yet it’s equally revealing of the sitters’ humanity. Historians consult sources such as letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts to better understand the social context in which this image was made and consumed. Art, in this sense, becomes an artifact embedded in its time.