Portrait Of Queen Mary Ii, Workshop Of Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723)

Full-length portrait of Queen Mary II (1662-1694) in ceremonial dress, seated near a draped table on a terrace, a crown at her side. Presented in a period Sunderland frame of finely carved wood, decorated with cornucopias and acanthus leaves, surmounted by a cartouche. This portrait is one of the official portraits by Kneller of King William III and Queen Mary II, now preserved at Windsor Castle (see O. Millar, The Tudor, Stuart and Early Georgian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 1963, pp. 142-144, nos. 335 and 338, II, pl. 335 and 338). King William III and Queen Mary are recorded as having been received by Kneller at Kensington Palace on 17 and 20 March 1690. Kneller's full-length portraits of the King and Queen, which may be those mentioned in an order of 16 July 1691 requiring payment of £200 to Kneller for portraits of the King and two of the Queen, were exhibited in the Council Chamber at Kensington Palace in 1697 and remained there until they were sent to Windsor Castle in 1795. These portraits were almost immediately considered the approved official portraits of William and the Queen, and Kneller and his studio were required to produce numerous copies to send to the King's ministers, friends, representatives abroad, and foreign sovereigns and governments. Among the collections where other paired copies are recorded are those at Hatfield, Narford, Penshurst, Grimsthorpe, and Welbeck. Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) Mary was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland with her husband, King William III and King William II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. She also became Princess of Orange after her marriage on 4 November 1677. Her joint reign with William over Great Britain is known as the William and Mary reign. Mary was born during the reign of her uncle, King Charles II. She was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York (the future), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. Mary and her sister Anne were raised Anglican at the request of Charles II, although their parents had both converted to Roman Catholicism. As Charles had no legitimate children, Mary was second in line to the throne. At 15, she married her cousin William of Orange, a Protestant. Charles died in 1685 and James became king, making Mary heir presumptive. James's attempts to rule by decree and the birth of his son from a second marriage, James Francis Edward (later known as "the Old Pretender"), led to his deposition in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the adoption of the English Bill of Rights. William and Mary became king and queen. Mary ruled primarily under her husband—a renowned military leader and principal opponent of Louis XIV—while he was in England. However, she acted alone when William was engaged in military campaigns abroad, proving herself a powerful, firm, and effective ruler. Mary's death from smallpox in 1694 at the age of 32 left William as sole ruler until his death in 1702, when his sister, Anne, succeeded him. Provenance: Historic house in Cumbria. Dimensions: 240 cm x 148 cm