Queen Anne

The similar size and format of this portrait of Queen Anne to that of the Duke of Marlborough, also on view in this section, indicates that the artist may have conceived them as a pair. Together they would not only have commemorated the duke's great military victory over the French, but would have celebrated it as a national triumph that revealed the strength of the English monarchy. Imagery associating the Queen's reign with a powerful English hero would have reassured her subjects of its stability. Royal portraits linked national identity to the ruler's image. When assembled in an album these images provided a sense of order to political and historical changes.