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| Samuel Joseph Posthumous Bust of George IV 1831 marble Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
"[The miniatures below are from] the series of paintings in the 'Gallery of Beauties' commissioned by George IV when Prince Regent. These were portraits of fashionable ladies, one list of whom is in the Royal Archives and another printed in the Ladies Monthly Museum (January 1814). A contemporary account records that the prince was 'forming a superb boudoir for their reception.' Opulent frames for the paintings were ordered from Rundell, Bridge and Rundell in 1814. The series may have been conceived as a nineteenth-century version of the 'Windsor Beauties' painted by Sir Peter Lely for Anne Hyde, Duchess of York in 1662-5, and Sir Godfrey Kneller's 'Hampton Court Beauties' painted for Queen Mary in 1691."
"The painter, Anne Mee (1780/5-1851), was the daughter of the artist John Foldstone. She was educated in London and was a portégée and pupil of the portrait painter George Romney. Lady Courtown introduced her to Queen Charlotte. Charlotte Papendiek, journalist and assistant keeper of the wardrobe to Queen Charlotte, described Anne Mee drawing the queen and princesses at Windsor in 1790. Mee visited [the royal family] frequently after that date. Her portraits are often characterised by large eyes, and by 1804 she was able to ask as much as 40 guineas for a miniature."
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| Anne Mee Viscountess Castlereagh ca. 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Lady Amelia Anne Hobart (1772-1829) was the daughter of the 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire. In 1794 she married Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, later Marquess of Londonderry."
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| Anne Mee The Hon. Louisa Hope 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Louisa (d. 1851) was the youngest daughter of William Beresford, Lord Decies. In 1806 she married Thomas Hope of Deepdene, an art collector and connoisseur. She became known as a dazzling society hostess, the couple's friends including the Prince and Princess of Wales (later George IV and Queen Caroline), and the Duke and Duchess of Clarence (the future William IV and Queen Adelaide). Queen Adelaide appointed Louisa a woman of the bedchamber. She married, secondly, William Carr Beresford. She was one of the wealthiest women in England."
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| Anne Mee Jane, Countess of Galloway ca. 1812-14 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Jane (1774-1842) was the daughter of the 1st Earl of Uxbridge and sister of the Marquess of Anglesey. In 1797 she married Lord Galies, later 8th Earl of Galloway."
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| Anne Mee Lady Jane Dalrymple-Hamilton ca. 1812-13 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Lady Jane (c. 1780-1852) was the eldest daughter of Adam, 1st Viscount Duncan of Camperdown. In 1800 she married Sir Hew Dalrymple-Hamilton, Baronet of Bargany."
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| Anne Mee Anne, Countess of Charlemont ca. 1812-14 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Anne (1780-1876) was the daughter of William Bermingham of Ross Hill, Galway. In 1802 she married Francis, 2nd Earl of Charlemont. Lady Granville described the Countess in Paris in 1814, shortly after this portrait was painted – 'Lady Charlemont is here in great beauty, but not making much sensation as she has no coquetterie, not even désir de plaire, which repels a Frenchman."
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| Anne Mee Caroline, Duchess of Argyll (possibly) ca. 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"The identity of this sitter is uncertain, but the Duchess of Argyll's name appears in the lists of the ladies included in Anne Mees' 'Gallery of Beauties' and this portrait is similar to other known images of the Duchess. Caroline (1774-1835) was the daughter of George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey, and married Henry, Lord Paget in 1795. The marriage was dissolved in 1810 and in November 1810 she married George Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll."
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| Anne Mee Catherine, Lady Heathcote 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Catherine (c. 1774-1825) was the daughter of John Manners and Louisa, Countess of Dysart. In 1793 she married Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Baronet of Normanton. She was described in 1813, the same year as this portrait was painted, as Sir Gilbert's 'amiable lady, who has long shone in the great world as one of the most distinguished luminaries of taste and fashion.' Here she is seen pointing to an anchor, a symbol of hope. This portrait was adapted from Richard Cosway's full-length drawing of Lady Heathcote as Flora, engraved by John Samuel Agar and published by Rudolph Ackermann in 1809."
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| Anne Mee Charlotte, Duchess of Beaufort 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Charlotte (1771-1854) was the daughter of the 1st Marquess of Stafford. In 1791 she married Henry Charles, 6th Duke of Beaufort."
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| Anne Mee Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Georgiana (1757-1806) was the eldest daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-83) and his wife Margaret Georgiana Spencer (1737-1814). The family travelled widely during Georgiana's childhood and entertained a variety of celebrated literary and political figures and, as a result, Georgiana developed a sophistication and charm. Horace Walpole wrote, 'her youth, figure, flowing good nature, sense and lively modesty, and modest familiarity, make her a phenomenon.' In 1774 she married the 5th Duke of Devonshire and soon became a fashion icon. She popularised the three-foot ostrich-feather headdress, extravagant hair towers and the free-flowing muslin dress that was simply tied by a ribbon around the waist. She also, however, became a heavy drinker and addicted to gambling, a lifestyle she came to regret. . . . This portrait, painted seven years after the death of the Duchess, was based on an earlier miniature from about 1800."
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| Anne Mee Lady Cecilia Foley as Ceres 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Lady Cecilia Foley (1786-1863) was the daughter of William Robert, 2nd Duke of Leinster. She married Thomas, 3rd Baron Foley of Kidderminster in 1806."
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| Anne Mee Louisa, Duchess of St Albans ca. 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Louisa (1777-1816) was the fourth daughter of John Manners and Louisa, Countess of Dysart. In 1802 she married Aubrey, 6th Duke of St Albans, as his second wife. A miniature of her sister, Catherine, Lady Heathcote, is also included [above] in this collection."
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| Anne Mee Mary, Duchess of Rutland 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Mary Isabella (1756-1831) was the youngest daughter of Charles, 4th Duke of Beaufort. In 1775 she married Charles, 4th Duke of Rutland, and they made a glamorous political couple. In 1780, the first general election after her marriage, despite being eight months pregnant, she campaigned actively, canvassing votes in person and by letter. Her contemporary, Charles Piggot, described her as 'a woman modelled as it were by the graces, with a delicacy and cultivation of mind rarely to be found,' and Nathaniel Wraxall called her 'the most beautiful woman in England.' Sir Joshua Reynolds painted her four times."
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| Anne Mee Georgiana Seymour, Lady Charles Bentinck 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Georgiana Augusta Frederica Seymour was the illegitimate daughter of Grace Dalrymple-Elliot. The record of her christening names George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales (later George IV) as her father, although there was, and is, some debate as to whether her father may actually have been the 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley. She was brought up in the Cholmondeley family and married William Charles Bentinck (1780-1826), third son of the 3rd Duke of Portland, in 1808. [She died in 1813, the same year this miniature was painted.]"
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| Anne Mee Anne Wellesley, Lady Abdy, as a Bacchante 1813 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Lady Anne Abdy (1788/9-1875) was the illegitimate daughter of Richard, Marquess of Wellesley (the elder brother of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington) and Hyacinthe Gabrielle Roland. She married Sir William Abdy in 1806 but he divorced her in 1816 after she eloped with his friend Lord Charles Bentinck. She married Bentinck shortly afterwards [who thus wed himself successively to the supposed illegitimate daughter of the heir to the throne, and the illegitimate niece of the hero of Waterloo].
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| Anne Mee Anne Wellesley, Lady Charles Bentinck ca. 1816-20 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Anne Mee Princess Charlotte of Wales ca. 1814 watercolor on ivory Royal Collection, Great Britain |
"Princess Charlotte (1796-1817) was the only child of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, and Princess Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821). After her parents separated, Charlotte joined the Prince of Wales' household at Carlton House, and was taken to live at the Lower Lodge, Windsor Castle, from 1805 onwards. Her relationship with her father was distant, particularly when she broke off her engagement to William, the hereditary Prince of Orange, in 1814. In May 1816 she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later king of the Belgians, but died soon after the birth of a stillborn son in 1817. [Had she lived, she would have inherited her father's throne when he died in 1830, and her first cousin Victoria would never have become Queen.]"
– quoted texts from curator's notes at the Royal Collection Trust