Queen Charlotte Sophia

Ramsay's Queen Charlotte Sophia at St John's College, Cambridge, belongs to the category of royal and official portraits distributed to institutions as marks of royal connection and favour. Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who married George III in 1761 at age seventeen, was painted by Ramsay in the coronation portraits of that year, and numerous replicas were produced for distribution across the institutional landscape of the British state — colleges, hospitals, government offices, and military establishments. The 1784 date suggests this is a later studio version, produced after Ramsay's stroke in 1773 prevented him from painting and his workshop continued replica production under his supervision. St John's College holds this portrait as part of its collection of royal and distinguished alumni imagery.

State portraits of the queen followed the same compositional formula as those of the king — coronation robes or formal court dress, architectural or landscape setting — adapted to the different conventions of female royal portraiture. The later production date likely means the face was copied from Ramsay's primary 1761-67 versions rather than painted from life, with the compositional arrangement adapted by the workshop.