Hampton Court Beauties

The Hampton Court Beauties are a series of eight portraits by Sir Godfrey Kneller, commissioned by Queen Mary II,^[1] depicting the most glamorous ladies from her court. They adorn the state rooms of King William III at Hampton Court Palace.

They were probably originally commissioned to hang in the "water room" at the palace; however, after his wife's death in 1694, William III moved them to "the eating room downstairs" where they currently hang.^[1]

Hampton Court also houses the Windsor Beauties by Sir Peter Lely, depicting the most beautiful ladies from the court of King Charles II, a generation before. However, unlike the Windsor Beauties, the Hampton Court Beauties were not mistresses of the King, but attendants to the Queen. In contrast to the three quarter-sized Windsor Beauties, they are more formally posed, and full length. They are also of a plainer, less erotic style, reflecting a more moralistic society and the desire to "rebrand" the monarchy accordingly.^[2]

Later critics such as Hazlitt and Fuseli still found them problematic, Hazlitt describing them as "painted, tawdry".^[3] By 1835, the earlier set of "bold meretricious hussies"^[a] had been sent from Windsor to join them at the more informal setting of Hampton Court.^[4] Both sets were part of the exhibition "The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned" in 2012.^[5][6]