Full-length, standing, figure to the left, face a little to the
right. Her left hand holds up her cloak, her right is on a table,
on which is a crown and sceptre. She wears a blue velvet dress
trimmed with broad gold braid, and a white satin skirt, richly
worked with gold and jewels. Her hair is short and powdered. On
canvas, 7 ft. 9 in. high, by 4 ft. 9 in. wide.
This was formerly attributed to Kneller, but it cannot be by him,
as she is represented as queen, while Kneller died four years
before her accession. Caroline was forty-five when her husband
became king.
"Her levées," says Coxes, "were a strange picture of the motley
character and manners of a queen and a learned woman. She received
company while she was at her toilette; prayers and sometimes a
sermon were read; learned men and divines were intermixed with
courtiers and ladies of the household; the conversation turned on
metaphysical subjects, blended with repartees, sallies of mirth,
and the tittle-tattle of a drawing-room."