Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester (1776-1857)

Princess Mary, fourth daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte, occupied a peculiar position in the royal family when Lawrence painted her around 1824 in this Royal Collection portrait: she had waited until the age of forty to marry her cousin Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester, a match that required royal permission her father's illness and her brothers' politics had long delayed. The so-called 'Nunnery' — the unmarried royal daughters' enforced domestic existence at Windsor through the long years of the king's declining health — had defined Mary's early life, and her 1816 marriage brought a degree of independent establishment that contrasted with the continued restrictions under which her sister Princess Sophia lived. Lawrence's commissioned portrait for the Royal Collection at 140.8 by 112 centimetres shows her in her late forties, her gentle temperament preserved in the warm, sympathetic handling that Lawrence brought to family-circle royal commissions distinct from the grander state portraits. Princess Mary's royal connection placed her portrait in the continuous stream of Lawrence's work for the Windsor Collection throughout his career as principal painter to the British crown.

The royal setting demanded formal presentation, and Lawrence responds with an upright, centered composition. The duchess's dress is rendered in cool silvery tones that complement the warm flesh painting, while the background recedes into the dark, atmospheric space characteristic of Lawrence's official portraits.