Prince George's Favourites (1835)
by
Sir Edwin Landseer
The animals portrayed here by Landseer (1802 - 1873) — who was quite popular with Britain's royal family though never their official painter — are Prince George's favorite horse, Selim; his Newfoundland, Nelson (a very popular name for Newfoundlands in the early 19th Century); and his spaniel Flora.
"Prince George" in this case would have been His Royal Highness Prince George (1819 – 1904), who is now typically referred to as "Prince George, Duke of Cambridge," but that dukedom wasn't granted to the Prince until 15 years after this painting was created. Prince George was one of the many grandsons of King George III, a nephew of Kings George IV and William IV, and a cousin of Queen Victoria; he was never seriously in line for the throne. He spent most of his life as a military officer, remembered mainly as an officer who fiercely resisted modernization of the British military, helping leave it terribly under-prepared for the changing nature of warfare in the later 19th and early 20th Centuries.