A miniature portrait in a blue and gold oval frame, with a ring attached so that it can be attached to a chain or worn as a pendant. The subject is George IV as a young man in seventeenth-century costume: he is in three-quarter profile, facing to the right. He has curly powdered hair and wears a cream doublet with a high starched collar; a miniature portrait, possibly of two women, is on a blue ribbon around his neck, and a pink cloak is draped across his shoulders, with the star of the Order of the Garter embroidered on the shoulder.

George IV when Prince of Wales

Richard Cosway

c.1790

Watercolour on ivory

6.5 x 5.5 cm

RCIN 421065

Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

This portrait miniature of George was painted some time after Jeremiah Meyer’s, by Richard Cosway, a painter, collector and portrait miniature specialist.

George is shown with flowing, powdered hair and an elaborate collar, with the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter around his neck.

The costume was often referred to as ‘Prince Florizel’ dress, combining the world of Shakespeare with the fantastical world of the masquerade - and harking back to George's early love affair with Mary 'Perdita' Robinson.

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Mrs Mary Robinson (Perdita)

Thomas Gainsborough

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Perdita upon her last legs

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