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With public art collections closed we are bringing the art to you, exploring highlights and hidden gems from across the country in partnership with Art UK. Today’s pick: St John’s College, Oxford’s Queen Charlotte Sophia
The art collections of Oxbridge colleges are strange creations, growing slowly over centuries, to no consistent plan. Often, the more interesting pieces end up in our possession by an accident of history. Allan Ramsay’s portrait of Queen Charlotte Sophia, painted soon after her marriage to George III in 1761, is a case in point. Along with Ramsay’s portrait of George III himself, it was a present from the royals to the president of St John’s soon after their visit to Oxford in 1785 to attend St Giles’s Fair right in front of the college. Continue reading...