George IV married his first cousin Caroline of Brunswick in the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, on the evening of 8th April 1795. William Hamilton, an illustrator, engraver and decorative painter as well as portraitist, was given a ticket to the ceremony and permission to paint it. According to Joseph Farington (1747-1821) it was George IV’s sister, Princess Elizabeth’s idea to record the ceremony in an engraving and it was the engraver, Tomkins who commissioned Hamilton to create a painting 12 feet wide for him to work from. This is an oil sketch for that larger painting, which in 1856 is recorded as part of the collection of Madame Marie Tussaud, née Grosholtz (1761-1850) and used by her as a back-drop for her wax-work displays. This painting is presumed to have been lost in the fire at Madame Tussauds in 1925. No engraving survives of the composition. This is an interesting early example of an ambitious painted depiction of a Royal ceremony instigated as a speculative venture, something which became the norm in the reign of Queen Victoria.

The main characters, reading from left to right, are the Bishop of London, a group of bridesmaids, the Archbishop of Canterbury (officiating), Queen Charlotte (seated), the groom and bride, George III (seated) and surrounded by members of his household. In the finished painting each of the attendants would have been painted from an individual portrait sittings and identified with a key. This sketch is more concerned with the composition, ensuring that the figures are clearly grouped and the whole framed by the altar and a cloth of state covering the King’s throne.