Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 14. (Budapest, 1994)

ÁCS Piroska: Aranyszelence IV. György angol király udvarából

based on a full-figure easel painting by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)

6 (111. 4.). In that picture, the King of Great Britain and Ireland is sitting in an unaffected pose on a sofa upholstered with pink damask, at an open window framed by crimson drapery. His clothing is simple: a blue laced pelisser, under which a light blue waistcoat and a white shirt are to be seen; he wears a black scarf and tight breeches, stockings and ribboned patent-leather shoes. Around his neck hangs, on a wide, red ribbon, the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece.

7 His breast is decorated with the Order of the Garter, on his right leg he wears the garter itself.

8 He wears gold rings on the fourth and fifth fingers of both his left and right hands. On the sofa there are nonchalantly spread documents and a top-hat with a pair of gloves in it. In the right corner of the picture there is a round tablet

9 with an inkpot satnding on it. This friendly interior, of a middle-class character, recalls the ground-floor Golden Drawing Room at Carlton House, the sovereign'

s onetime London residence in Waterloo Square'". In a letter to his sister, Lawrence mentions that he had to finish the portrait" as soon as possible because of the forthcoming journey of the King to Scotland. The artist considered this work to be his most successful with regard to verisimilitude, and maybe the finest because of its nonchalant manner. (It was not quite a year before, at the end of 1821, that the painter finished a portrait of the sovereign which depicted him in a theatrical pose and full coronation dress of state with all his decorations and an emperor's crown

12 (111.5.) These celebrations were held in camera and with the greatest pomp, costing enormous sums of money. The robe of the king alone cost £ 24.000 the crown another £ 54.000.

13 Wath of all these things can we see in the small enamel picture? On the 6.8x4.6 cm rectangular golden plate we can see the portrait of the sovereign (111. 6.). The master, Henry Bone ( 1755-1834),

14 accentuated the head and the chest. It is only the position of the left upper arm of the monarch and the pink patch of the drapery below that refer to the original setting. The garments of the king are the same as in the original; the painter, however represented him, generously, as a younger person. While Lawrence painted a realistic portrait of George IV, as a man of sixty, with a chestnut wig, disposed to obesity, and bearing on his face the marks of debauchery, here we see a „round-faced young man"

15 with curly locks and shining blue eyes. We know that the majority of Bone's enamel portraits - in contrast to his watercolour ones - were made not after a sitting, but by copying paintings. In this case, however, he did follow neither prototype nor reality, as, according to the alreadymentioned inscription, the object dates from 1828, i.e. six years later, and the portrait is idealized. As a contrast, it is worth casting a glance at the chalk drawing Lawrence made as for study for his work

16 (III.

7). The lightness of this - a fresh touch that is expected from studies of the like - displays a younger face than that on the final work but one older than on Bone's portrait. The portrait (II) - variations Lawrence's painting, of course, served as the prototype for a number of other art works: engravings,

17 copies,

18 variations.

19 Some of the copies were used to decorate lids of caskets - thus the portrait by Samuel Raven (1775-1847) of a small papier-mache box,

2

" another one of a lacquered box from the Stobwasser works.

21 Bone himself also painted the pendant of his enamel miniature as the decoration on a tortoise-shell snuffbox.

22 The gold box (I) - goldsmith's work and the master Let us now investigate the casket as a frame to the miniatura. The 22 carat golden casket of a considerable weight (390 grams) is an