Portraits in Oxford *

OP1
Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland

Artist: by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Baronet

Date: 1690-1723

Medium: oil on canvas

Measurements: height 2362 mm. (93 in.) width 1422 mm. (56 in.)

Acquisition: bequest by George Clarke, 1736

Location: Examination Schools

Description:
Whole length, standing to left; dark hair in curls, one long curl on her right shoulder. Coronation robes: low-necked blue velvet bodice trimmed and edged with ermine and pearls, and fastened in front with broad jewelled clasps; short sleeves slashed ermine, showing the sleeves of her chemisette, laced and gathered at the elbow; train of blue velvet, edged with gold lace and lined with ermine; cloth-of-silver skirt, gold embroidered and heavily ornamented down the front; her right hand rests on the orb which lies beside the crown on a table to left; her left hand raises a fold of her robe; large pearl earring; architectural and curtain background, view of the Banqueting House, Whitehall, through opening to left.

Bequeathed to the University by the politician and architect, George Clarke, together with a companion portrait of William III (OP 5): 'Georgius Clarke L.L.D. & Coll. Ômn. Ant: Soc. Bibliotheca Bodleiana, quam beneficis suis saepius ornaverat moriens legavit Effigies Principum Gulielmi & Mariae' (Registrum Benefactorum, for the year 1737, Library Records b.904, Bodleian Library, II, p.165)

The prime version of this state portrait, painted by Kneller in 1690, is in the Royal Collection. Commissioned to commemorate their dual coronation in 1689, Kneller's portraits of William III and Mary II were intended to be hung together. Identically framed, the pair of portraits bequeathed together to the University now face each other at the top of the main staircase in the Examination Schools. They hung previously in the Bodleian Library, where they were seen by George Scharf, then Keeper of the National Portrait Gallery, who noted: 'same as pictures in St James’s Palace. very good.' (G. Scharf, 'Trustee Sketchbooks', IX, 1866, p.79, National Portrait Gallery Archives, London) The colours, especially the large areas of blue and red, have now sunk, giving both portraits a faded, lacklustre appearance.

Fewer copies of Mary's portrait are known than those recorded for William (see O. Millar, 1, p.143, no.335). George Clarke, the donor of both portraits in the Examination Schools, was Burgess (or Member of Parliament) for the University in 1685, and again between 1717 and 1734. He was secretary at war, 1689-1702, and accompanied the King to the battle of the Boyne. He returned to England in 1691and acted as adviser to Mary, regent in her husband's absence, until her death in 1695. Clarke owned a substantial collection of paintings and books, many of which he gave to the University and its constituent Colleges. He sat to Kneller for a double portrait with George, Prince of Denmark and Duke of Cumberland, in 1705 (All Souls College; Lane Poole, II, p.189, no.33)

Exhibitions:
Oxford Exhibition of Historical Portraits, 1905, no.161

Literature:
A. Wood, History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford ed. by J. Gutch, 2 vols (1792-1796), II, Part II, p.969; G. Scharf, 'Trustee Sketchbooks', XI, 18 June 1867, p.79; R. Lane Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the possession of the University, Colleges, City, and County of Oxford, 3 vols (1912, 1925), I, p.138, no.337; G. Vertue, 'Note-books V', Walpole Society 26 (1938), p.18; O. Millar, Tudor, Stuart and early Georgian Pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen (1963), I, 143, no.338