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 has a long, untidy beard and long white hair.
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 has a long, untidy beard and long white hair.

George III was hardly ever depicted in later life, when he retreated to Windsor Castle after the final breakdown of his mental health.

This rare depiction of the ageing king is likely to have been based on a sketch by the sculptor Matthew Cotes Wyatt, though a note on one impression suggested that it was based on a 'slight view' caught by the artist himself, Samuel William Reynolds. He shows the king with long hair and an untrimmed beard.

The flowing white hair suggests that George's mental illness and isolation had transformed him into a King Lear figure.

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