Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick

Caroline of Brunswick, the estranged wife of George IV, was one of the most controversial figures in Regency England. Hayter painted her in 1820, the year of her sensational trial for adultery before the House of Lords, when public sympathy for the wronged queen nearly toppled the government. The portrait in the National Portrait Gallery captures a woman at the center of a constitutional crisis that riveted the entire nation. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

Hayter presents Caroline with dignity and composure, her features rendered with the sympathetic treatment that reflected public sentiment. The portrait’s warmth suggests the painter shared the popular view of the persecuted queen.