A three-quarter length portrait of the elderly George III. He is seated at a table with his chin propped on one hand, wrapped in an ermine-trimmed silk robe. His face is in profile. He is almost entirely bald except for a few wisps at the base of his skull, and his beard has been neatly trimmed.
Image: A three-quarter length portrait of the elderly George III. He is seated at a table with his chin propped on one hand, wrapped in an ermine-trimmed silk robe. His face is in profile. He is almost entirely bald except for a few wisps at the base of his skull, and his beard has been neatly trimmed.

The final mezzotint shows the approved version of George III's appearance: bald-headed, with a neatly trimmed beard.

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.

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