Fashionable Contrasts
In 1791 and 1792, there was no one who received more attention in the British press than Frederica Charlotte, the oldest daughter of the King of Prussia, whose marriage to the second (and favorite) son of King George and Queen Charlotte, Prince Frederick, the Duke of York set off a media frenzy that can only be compared to that of Princess Diana in our own day.
In some ways, she was an unlikely candidate for adulation. As reported in The Evening Mail in November of 1791, she was not particularly striking or beautiful. She was "below the middling stature." She had a figure "rather inclined to the en bon point," that is, a little plump. And she had a face that was more animated and interesting than "regularly beautiful."
But perhaps because she was lacking in some of the more recognized signs of aristocratic bearing, the British press that so wished to like her, seized upon another sign of privilege: the extremely dainty size of her shoe. The extent of this foot fetish is suggested by the fact that in November 1791, Isaac Cruikshank produced a print, Getting the Length of the Duchess's Foot in which Cinderella-like, other society women try to force their feet into the Duchess' shoe. And he then followed it up with another print that purported to show the exact size of the Duchess' shoe (five and a half inches) from two views: side and bottom.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
But, as usual, Gillray came up with the most memorable and iconic image of this episode. For now that at least one of the sons of King George and Queen Charlotte was legitimately married, the British public could turn away from the sordid stories of princely mistresses and gambling debts to the hope of a peaceful hereditary succession. Prince Frederick, in Gillray's representation, was now in a position to address that concern.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Fashionable Contrasts. . .
- Draper Hill, Fashionable Contrasts, 1966, #58
- "Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany," Wikipedia
- "Princess Frederica Charlotte of Prussia," Wikipedia
- Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #61
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