everythingieverloved:The Hampton Court Beauties “In the 1691, [Sir Godfrey Kneller] was asked by Que

everythingieverloved:The Hampton Court Beauties “In the 1691, [Sir Godfrey Kneller] was asked by Queen Mary II to paint the ‘Hampton Court Beauties’, the eight ‘reigning toasts’ of her own Court: ‘the most beautiful site because the originals were all in being, and often to be compared with their pictures’. Mary herself was the ‘Sovereign Queen of Beauty’, a fashion trend-setter and collector of fine china. In her commission to Kneller, she was consciously paying homage to the Lely ‘Windsor Beauties’, collected by her mother a generation earlier.” (x)Diana De Vere, Duchess of St. AlbansIsabella Bennett, Duchess of Grafton Margaret Cecil, Countess of Ranelagh Mary Compton, Countess of Dorset Mary Bentinck, Countess of EssexCarey Fraser, Countess of Peterborough Mary Scrope, later Mrs Pitt Frances Whitmore, Lady Middleton “They originally hung in the ‘Water Gallery’ at Hampton Court, until it was destroyed in c. 1700, when they moved to their present location in the Eating Room below stairs, also at Hampton Court. According to Horace Walpole Mary II was advised by Lady Dorchester against the idea of having the most beautiful of her court painted: ‘Madam, if the King were to ask for the portraits of all the wits in his court, would not the rest think he called them fools?’”  (x)-> The Windsor Beauties -- source link

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