The Duke of Clarence is on the left, dressed in a blue coat with a white vest; he has his right hand on a globe, his left on his hip. The Duke of Kent is in red turned full to the front, but looking at his brother; his right hand is on his brother’s left hand, his left is pointing upwards. On canvas, 9 ft. 6 in. high, by 7 ft. wide.
Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV., was born August 21st, 1765. Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, father of her present Most Gracious Majesty, was born November 2nd, 1767. This picture was painted when they were about thirteen and eleven years. In 1780, the Duke of Clarence went to sea as a midshipman. West received 250 guineas for the picture.
89 George III. Reviewing the Tenth Dragoons in Hyde Park in 1797 (168). . . . . Beechey.
The King is in front on a white horse, whose head is turned to the left. He is in full regimentals, with a cocked hat. Just behind him is the Prince of Wales, in the uniform of the 10th, holding up his sword and giving the word of command. To the left of the King is the Duke of York, with Generals Goldsworthy and Sir David Dundas; Sir William Fawcett is standing in front of them. The King is turning round to speak to them, and points with his right hand to the cavalry charge in the left distance. On canvas, 13 ft. 8 in. high, by 16½ ft. wide.
The 10th Light Dragoons (now the 10th Hussars) were frequently reviewed by George III. in company with the Prince of Wales, who entered the army as brevet-colonel, November 19th, 1782, and after whom the regiment was called “The Prince of Wales’s Own,” on Michaelmas Day, 1783. In 1793 he was appointed colonel-commandant of the corps, and succeeded as colonel on July 18th, 1796. The review commemorated here took place not long after that date, for the picture is mentioned in a biographical sketch of Sir William Beechey in The London Monthly Mirror for July, 1798, where we are told that the King rewarded him for it with the honour of knighthood. The names of the officers were derived from an account of a review, which took place in 1799, and which this picture was formerly supposed to represent; it is therefore doubtful whether they are quite correct. (See Notes and Queries.)
This picture is regarded as Beechey’s masterpiece, and was very much admired at the time. But “although a clever and showy group of portraits, it has little of real nature, and is full of the painter’s artifices. Thus the King’s white horse forms the principal light, and comes off the Prince of Wales’s dark horse, and so on; the light and shadow of all the heads being the light and shadow of the studio, and not of the field.”—(Redgrave’s Century of Painters.) The King had several copies taken of it; in one, which he gave to Lord Sidmouth, the figure of the Prince was omitted by the King’s own desire, a curious proof of his dislike of his son. When the Prince became King he hinted that it should be restored, but this was evaded. Benjamin Smith engraved the portrait of George III. from this picture.
Although this room formed part of the state apartments built by Kent, it was much transformed in the reign of George III., so that it bears little trace of its original decoration. Indeed, it is so commonplace in appearance, that, except for the pictures which now hang on its walls, it looks more like an ordinary bedroom in an old-fashioned country inn than a king’s chamber in a palace. The plain deal dado, the common chimney-piece of black veined marble, the wood and plaster cornice, the shutters and windows, are all of the most ordinary and inartistic pattern.
The dimensions of this room are 31 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 17 feet high.