The Three Eldest Princesses: Charlotte, Princess Royal (1766-1828), Augusta (1768-1840) and Elizabeth (1770-1840)

In the spring of 1784 this portrait started a quarrel that ended Gainsborough's dealings with the Royal Academy. He had painted the three eldest daughters of George III, a commission from their brother the Prince of Wales, and he wanted it hung low, at eye level, where you could read the faces. The Academy's hanging committee insisted it go up high with the other large canvases. Gainsborough refused, pulled every picture he had submitted that year, and never exhibited there again. The princesses were young then, the eldest not yet 20. What hangs now is only part of what he painted; the canvas was cut down later, losing the full length he had fought to have shown at the height of a person's gaze.