Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.59
Gallery Label:
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-1765), was the second surviving son of the future King George II and Queen Caroline of Ansbach. He was also the younger brother of Frederick, Prince of Wales, whose later portrait by Charles Phillips hangs to the right. Hogarth's lively portrait was painted when, at the age of ten or eleven, the prince was given conspicuous honors: his own apartments in the royal palaces, a household staff, and an annual income of £6,000. In adult life William Augustus became a senior army officer, permanently estranged from his elder brother. He was responsible for the brutal massacre of Scottish rebels at Culloden in 1746, following the Highland uprising led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, an action that earned the twenty-five-year-old Duke of Cumberland the permanent label "Butcher of Culloden." Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2005