A Young Knight of the Garter, Possibly George Augustus (1683–1760), Later George II of Great Britain and Ireland

Art Historical Context

This delicate miniature portrait, painted on vellum by Benjamin Arlaud, captures a young man identified possibly as George Augustus, who would later reign as King George of Great Britain and Ireland from 1727 to 1760. The wears the insignia of the Order of the Garter, one of Britain’s most ancient and prestigious chivalric honors, founded in the fourteenth century. Created as an oval measuring just over two inches tall, the work exemplifies the intimate scale of portrait miniatures popular among European nobility in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Arlaud’s choice of vellu...