The patronage of remarkable princesses | Apollo Magazine · 2020. 1. 3. · Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818), married and crowned within a fortnight in 1761, was 17

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The patronage of remarkable princessesCharlotte Gere 25 APRIL 2017

Frogmore House, The Queen's Library from William Henry Pyne's 'Royal Residences', print published in 1817,Charles Wild. Royal Collection Trust © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

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This major publication – close to 600 pages and over 500 illustrations – is theoutcome of a wide-ranging research project, culminating in an exhibition forwhich it acts as a catalogue, with venues at the Yale Center for British Art atNewhaven in the USA (until 30 April) and at Kensington Palace in London (22June–12 November). Put like that, scant justice is done to its range andambition. As well as the named three editors, 27 contributors survey femininelife and the pursuit of culture and scientific progress at court during the long18th century. The roll call is a guarantee of expertise and new insights; manyare veterans of the challenge to the male-dominated Enlightenment narrative(readers for whom these credentials are not self-evident might welcome briefcontributor biographies).

These remarkable German princesses (all Protestants, a condition of the Act ofSuccession) married into the recently installed House of Hanover. Caroline ofAnsbach (1683–1737) married George Augustus of Hanover, heir to the Electorof Hanover, in 1704, in the knowledge that at the death of Queen Anne herfather-in-law would succeed to the throne as George I. She became QueenConsort with her husband’s accession in 1727. Her eldest son Frederick, Princeof Wales, married Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719–72). He died before his fatherand the widowed Augusta assumed the role of Princess Dowager during the

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Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818), married and crowned within afortnight in 1761, was 17 years old and had never met her future husband. Bythe standards of Hanoverian princes (not, it must be said, dauntingly high),the marriages were successful, resulting in large families to ensure thesuccession. George II and George III duly became Electors of Hanover,although George III never visited. German was spoken at court and all threeprincesses arrived with little knowledge of English. There was a tellingassumption on the part of the new dynasty that, after 20 years of Hanoverianrule, the common language in Great Britain would be German. Thorougheducation in Germany enabled the princesses to build on advanced scientificideas. Medicine and mental disorders benefited from their example andthrough their philanthropy. Rare survivals among their own artworks showabove average abilities.

For women in the 18th-century Enlightenment wishing to leave anintellectual or scientific legacy, it was not an advantage to be a princess.Caroline, Augusta, and Charlotte were well educated (Caroline in particularwas more cultivated than her boorish but devoted husband); they createdgardens and menageries and formed libraries. Enlightened ladies might berecruited to court positions, as readers and as governesses to the royalchildren, whose education was another forum for progressive ideas, butopportunities for stimulating discussion and exchange of ideas were limited bystifling court etiquette. The princesses’ patronage was valuable, particularly inpromoting British manufactures, but their means of expression severely

restricted – inhibited from showing off their learning, they certainly could notappear in print. However the tangible results, such as the great achievementof Kew Gardens and the much enriched royal collections, are impressive. Thewatercolour illustrations to William Henry Pyne’s Royal Residences (1816–19)are an endorsement of Hanoverian culture, taste, and sensibility.

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Augusta, Princess of Wales (1754), Jean-Étienne Liotard. Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II2017

The 31 chapters are organised in two parts, the first six essays dealing withhistory (biographical notes and a guide to German princely politics during theperiod), the ‘Hanoverian dimension’, identity, and dissemination of images.Patronage, collecting, and curating long-neglected royal treasurespreoccupied all three princesses. They were dedicated to garden-making andrunning through this volume is the primacy of botany and natural history. Farfrom being simply part of ‘polite’ education, botany had implications for anexpanding empire and for agricultural development at home. All these themesare pursued in greater detail in the catalogue proper. There are many moreillustrations than there are exhibits and portraits of distinguished men of theEnlightenment show the Hanoverian court, often stigmatised as dull andphilistine, in a favourable light.

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addressing all three protagonists’ cultural and philanthropic activities,followed by the catalogue entries. The brief is wide. It includes theatricals,court dress, music, and dance, which was the great contribution of theGerman contingent and inspiration for a most sympathetic royal portrait:Philippe Mercier’s group of Frederick’s children playing a trio while one sisteris reading Milton. The new print culture and satire are included, as well asscience and medicine (‘inoculation’ is accompanied by lurid images), andarchitecture. Queen Charlotte’s retreat at Frogmore, with its intense focus onbotany and artistic activity, gets two dedicated pieces. Her friendships arehighlighted, particularly Fanny Burney, Cornelia Knight, the Duchess ofPortland, and Mrs Delany, for whom she had great affection.

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The Musick Party: Frederick, Prince of Wales with his Three Eldest Sisters (1733), Philippe Mercier. Royal CollectionTrust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

Of course, with such an encyclopaedic range of topics there are outsidecontributions (from the British Museum, the Wellcome Trust, and Kew, forexample), but it is the riches of the royal collections that predominate. BothAugusta and Charlotte had interesting collections that were auctioned off aftertheir deaths and should not have been dispersed. State portraits cannot showto advantage in reproduction, but many of the items – miniature portraits,prints, small artefacts and medical and scientific instruments, books,botanical works and herbaria, maps and documents – lend themselves well toplates in a book where they can be studied more easily than on the wall or in acase.

Given the restless times and a fractured feuding royal family, a remarkablyconsistent picture of progress emerges, though occasionally intriguing

differences among the contributors arise over the true value of the princesses’contribution. With so many interlinked topics, some slight overlapping andrepetition occurs, in images as well as subject matter. However, since it isunlikely that readers will treat this vast accumulation of information as acontinuous narrative it is hardly a significant fault.

Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of theModern World by Joanna Marschner with David Bindman and Lisa L. Ford(eds.) is published by Yale Center for British Art and Historic Royal Palaces inassociation with Yale University Press.

From the April 2017 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here

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The patronage of remarkable princesses | Apollo Magazine · 2020. 1. 3. · Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1744–1818), married and crowned within a fortnight in 1761, was 17