Date of Award
2026
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted Access (SIA Only)
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Fine and Decorative Art and Design
Abstract
This research investigates how Queen Charlotte’s royal image was constructed, reinforced, and challenged within the political and patriarchal climate of eighteenth-century Britain. Full-length portraiture and ceremonial performance were popular and monumental forms for distributing the royal image. Smaller portable, material forms such as miniatures, snuffboxes, gold boxes, jewellery, and other objects of vertu carried significant weight for their size. These objects allowed a widespread and more intimate circulation of royal image, acting as embodied presences, symbols of political allegiance, and sentimental tokens. This analysis examines how images and objects acted in partnership and together supported the construction of Charlotte’s royal image. Objects were a sentimental and political currency used to establish dynastic interests, maternal authority, and diplomatic exchange. Throughout her reign, Queen Charlotte’s royal representation was punctuated by both praise and scrutiny. Informed by recent scholarship in material culture, gender, and queenship studies, this dissertation affirms Charlotte’s active agency through regal, maternal, and political authority. It also considers the more intimate and personal aspects of Charlotte’s image and relationships.
Recommended Citation
de Jager, Lauren, "Sentimental and Political Currency: The Visual and Material Culture of Queenship, Motherhood, and Diplomacy in Queen Charlotte’s Court" (2026). MA in Fine and Decorative Art and Design Dissertations. 14.
https://digitalcommons.sia.edu/ma_fine_ad/14