Portrait of George IV

In the autumn of 1815, a few months after Waterloo, the sculptor Antonio Canova was in Paris on the pope's behalf, trying to bring home the statues and paintings the Papal States had ceded to France under the Treaty of Tolentino in 1797. British diplomats backed his claim, and British money helped pay for the convoy back to Italy. In thanks the pope sent plaster casts of his antiquities to the British government. A Protestant prince and the Catholic pope had ended up on the same side.

Lawrence signed and dated this portrait in 1816. It shows the Prince Regent, who became King George IV in 1820, standing larger than life, and the museum thinks he probably gave it to Pius VII after coming to the throne, in the goodwill that followed Napoleon's fall. He wears the insignia of the Garter on his left leg and of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Beside him stands a table given to him by Louis XVIII, the restored king of France. On it lie his crown and a letter from Pius VII himself.