Hon. George King (1771–1839)

The Honourable George King, later 3rd Earl of Kingston, was seventeen when George Romney painted him in 1788 at Eton, where he was completing his education before entering the world of Anglo-Irish aristocracy. The portrait, now at Eton College, belongs to the substantial series Romney made of Etonian youths during the decade of his greatest productivity. George King was heir to a significant Irish title and estates — his family seat was Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork. Romney's portraits of Etonian young men have a particular quality of assured ease, depicting subjects whose social position was settled from birth and whose education at Eton represented the natural preparation for a life of privilege and responsibility. The mild idealization Romney deployed in such works was not dishonest but appropriate: these were portraits made to celebrate youth and promise rather than document character forged by experience.

Romney's handling reflects the lighter, more open approach he used for youthful male subjects: the palette is warmer, the background less deeply dark, the overall effect more immediate than his portraits of older public men. The face is given careful attention, with the particular physiognomy of the teenage sitter observed with sensitivity. The coat and setting are handled economically.