Allegorical Scene with the Prince of Wales, later George IV (1762-1830) and Friends in a Boat: Mrs Maria Anne (née Smythe) Fitzherbert (1756-1837), Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816), Elizabeth Linley, Mrs Sheridan (1754-1792), Jacob Pleydell Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Earl of Radnor (1749-1828) and Elizabeth Stephens, Mrs William Hallett (1764-1833)
Artists: Henry Tresham, RA (Irish, 1756-1814), The Rev. Matthew William Peters, RA (British, 1742-1814)
Date: ca. 1787-1789
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: National Trust Collections, London, United Kingdom
Description
The Prince of Wales (later George IV), in the centre, gazes ardently at his mistress, Mrs Fitzherbert, with whom he lived from 1785 to 1803; to the left are the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan and a woman labelled as Miss Stephens (probably an anachronistic identification with the singer who became Countess of Essex); in front, Elizabeth Linley, Mrs Sheridan (d.1792), and Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor. The scene is probably an allegory of the reconciliation effected by Sheridan between Mrs Fitzherbert and the Prince of Wales in 1787, after Fox had disavowed their marriage to Parliament, apparently on the authority of the Prince, to ensure that the settlement of the latter's debts was voted through. Once owned by the Sheridan family.
