The story of the print's alteration is a puzzling one. If Reynolds based the likeness on a first-hand or even second-hand encounter with the king, it is surprising that the artist and the Prince Regent disagreed so significantly about the state of his hair.
However, if Reynolds's likeness was based on his imagination, it is striking that George III's subjects were imagining him, in the final years of his life, through the model of King Lear.