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This portrait miniature of Princess Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of George II, was taken from an original oil painting (now lost) by the Swedish-born portrait painter Hans Hysing. Hysing was assistant to fellow Swede Michael Dahl, whom he resided with from 1700. He succeeded Dahl as portraitist to King George II and his family. As with his portrait of Princess Caroline Elizabeth, many of his works were engraved in mezzotint by John Faber. Christian Richter, who painted the current portrait, was also Swedish by birth, settling in England in 1702. He created miniature versions of the oil portraits painted by his compatriots. Vertue, the antiquary, engraver and critic described his style as 'very tender and Curious, his tincts had a great variety his pencil regular and neat, his lines of drawing very just & toucht with freedom'. This description could easily be applied to the current work. Although a copy, it is painted with a great deal of freedom and understanding, a feature which must stem from his intimate acquaintance with the original artist and artwork.

According to the mezzotint inscribed by John Faber, the original painting by Hysing of the princess was; 'Done from the Painting which Her Highness Presented to ye late Countess of Sussex & now Inscribed to the Right Honble. the Earl of Sussex Knight of the most Honble. Order of the Bath’.[1]

Princess Caroline Elizabeth, the fourth child and third daughter of George II and Caroline of Ansbach, was born at Herrenhausen in 1713 but moved to England the following year with the rest of her family. The family move was prompted by the coronation of her Grandfather, George I of England. Her elder brother Frederick was, however, left in Hanover. Caroline’s childhood was disrupted and traumatic, marked by frequent battles between her father and grandfather. By the end of 1717, she was held at St James’s Palace by her grandfather while her parents were ordered to leave. The reconciliation of 1720 between her father and grandfather did not change her circumstances and she remained part of the latter’s household. In 1722, when she was nine years old, she was inoculated against smallpox. The innovative procedure of inoculation linked the royal family, in particular Princess Caroline’s mother, to a new age of rationalism and progress. Her mother also made sure she was well-equipped as a royal princess to entertain and hold her own in conversation – her education included reading Plutarch, Heroditus and Thucydides, and learning the history of the Roman Empire. Dynastic ties to Britain were also reflected in both the art collecting of the family and the portraits commissioned by them.

The present portrait, painted when Princess Caroline was in her teens, was likely painted around the time of her father’s coronation as King George II. During the 1730s Caroline had what appears to have been her only romantic liaison, with John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey. Hervey was married with eight children but apparently enjoyed affairs with both men and women. The social commentator Horace Walpole wrote of the relationship that: ‘she had conceived an unalterable passion for Lord Hervey, constantly marked afterwards by all kind and generous offices to his children. After Hervey’s death in 1743, Caroline completely retreated to St James’s Palace, only seeing her family and close courtiers. An idea for her to marry Duke Adolphus Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, later king of Sweden, came to nothing. Always a hypochondriac, she suffered increasing ill health and died shortly after Christmas in 1758.

[1] This mezzotint exists in multiple places (including the collection at the British Museum) but this version has been viewed in the Royal Collection Trust [RCIN 603999]. See also; O'Donoghue, F., 1908. ‘Engraved British Portraits Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum’. Volume I-V, London and ‘British Mezzotinto Portraits’ / by John Chaloner Smith, London 1884 – JCS I, p342: 66