The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
German Princesses & British Crown
NEW HAVEN » Amy Meyers is proud of everything the Yale Center for British Art displays, but the latest exhibition had her almost giddy at a preview the other day. And for good reason.
“Enlightened Princesses: Caroline, Augusta, Charlotte, and the Shaping of the Modern World” is a monster show (that’s American English for ambitious, lush and important).
It’s been years in the making, it features nearly 300 objects from not only the YCBA but from 50 lenders (including the Royal Collection Trust) and it’s being done in collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces, which is the charity that looks after the Tower of London, Kensington Palace and other landmarks.
“This is an exhibition that has no holds barred,” said Meyers, director of the Yale Center for British Art, at the preview. “You’ll get many of the great highlights and advances of a productive and enlightened age, but we also deal with things problematic as an age of empire...”
But most important is the first-time focus on three German princesses who married into the British royal family in the 18th century and changed not only England but also world history. Curators of the secondfloor exhibition talked excitedly of historic more than artistic strokes as they explained how Caroline (born 1838), Augusta (born 1713) and Charlotte (1723-1818) promoted innovation, women’s and children’s issues, public health, music, gardens, science, trade and industry in English life.
Along the way, we meet the likes (and likenesses) of Sir Isaac Newton and George Frideric Handel, John Gay (“The Beggar’s Opera”), Johann Christian Bach and writer Samuel Johnson.
Until now, the contributions of the three princesses haven’t been well understood, said Joanna Marschner, senior curator at Historic Royal Palaces.
“A lot has been written about George I, George II, George III and that great history of the 18th century,” said Marschner. “The rise of the city of London as a financial institution, of the (growing) empire, the loss of America... But the role of all of the women, their wives, has really been a subject that has been (unexplored).”
The three well-educated princesses had been selected for the kings because of their family connections in northern Germany, she said.
In addition to wall-sized portraits and other paintings, there is an audio-visual screening of a dance actually done in the palace (based on royal notes),
there are coins, books, iPads that play period music, a baby robe belonging to the future George IV, royal jewelry, musical manuscripts, botanical and anatomical illustrations, architectural drawings and garden designs.
The exhibition will be on display through April 30 and then travel to Kensington Palace in London, once home to Caroline and Charlotte, where it will be on view from June 22 to Nov. 12.
For Caroline, Augusta and Charlotte, the royal court was not only a stage for the performance of music, dance, and theater, but also as a political and cultural arena, a Yale release notes. In furnishing these spaces, the princesses constructed a visual statement of the authority of the Hanoverian dynasty, under which the patronage of music and the arts would flourish. One quick, amazing story: Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz married George III and produced 15 children, 13 of whom lived to adulthood. She enjoyed a happy life with her husband until he had his first mental and physiological collapse. The episode was very distressing for Charlotte and brought her a prominence in political affairs that led to public satire as she was given charge of the king’s care and household (assisted by a council). Charlotte died in 1818 and was buried at Windsor, where her ill husband outlived her by two years.
If you’re going to take in this exhibition, read up on it as much as possible at britishart.yale.edu, then give yourself some time. There is also a companion book coming out in March and exhibition-related events, including a dance performance Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. with period instruments and dances.