George II Portrait of Frederick Louis Prince of Wales in the manner of Jean-Baptiste van Loo (1684-1745)

Although Frederick Louis (1707-1751) is shown in an earlier portrait also wearing some armour and with a plumed helmet at his side, as in the offered picture, he did not have a military career, unlike his brother, William Augustus (1721-1765). They were both invested as Knights of the Garter, in 1717 and 1730 respectively, and Frederick was created Prince of Wales in 1729. Frederick Louis was instrumental in building up the British Navy and  Rule Britannia was commissioned by him from the composer Thomas Arne for the masque Alfred in 1740. He was also a great patron of the Arts and an ardent cricketer. He pre-deceased his father, George II, so never became King and his son succeeded to the throne as George III

Jean-Baptiste van Loo came to London in 1737 and carried out full-length portraits of both Frederick Prince of Wales and his wife, Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, as well as a group portrait of them with their children. He also painted portraits of Sir Robert Walpole in his official robes as Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Burlington with his family and Colley Cibber, the actor. The pose in this picture seems a popular one in van Loo’s oeuvre and there is a portrait of Louis XV in partial armour, one hand holding a baton, the other on his hip and a helmet on a table at his side, as in the present portrait, which perhaps makes it more likely that this is a sketch for an intended larger portrait. Van Loo had left London for Paris by 1742 because of failing health, and quickly moved back to his home city of Aix-en-Provence, where he died in 1745. If the present canvas is by him, it may have gone back to Paris with him, and there is a certain sketchiness in the treatment of the hands and the rococo armorial cartouche – the face is finely painted, but some of the peripheral detail may have been completed by an assistant.