Caroline, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte (1801). Sir Thomas Lawrence (English, 1769-1

Caroline, Princess of Wales and Princess Charlotte (1801). Sir Thomas Lawrence (English, 1769-1830). Oil on canvas. Purchased by Queen Victoria. The Royal Collection.

Caroline, Princess of Wales, married the future George IV in 1795 but within a year the couple had separated and by 1800, when this portrait was begun, she had set up an alternative court at Montague House, Blackheath. Princess Caroline had taken lessons on the harp, an instrument highly regarded in court circles, and here - watched over by a shadowy bust of Minerva, patroness of the arts - she tunes her harp and prepares to play the music offered up by her daughter Princess Charlotte.