Princess Charlotte was the only child
of the Prince Regent, future George IV.
So she was the granddaughter of George III and
would therefore have been queen if she had lived
beyond the birth of her child.
Princess Charlotte was painted wearing this dress
by the famous portraitist of the time George Dawes,
who worked in England and in Russia and in one of the versions
in the Royal Collection it's wonderful to be able to compare
this dress with the actual painting and see where perhaps
some artistic license came into play
and where in many ways the differences appear.
It was a very interesting moment in Princess Charlotte's life
because her future husband, Prince Leopold, had actually
served under the Emperor Alexander I of Russia.
Who of course successfully went on to defeat
the French in the Napoleonic Wars.
And it's possible that there was almost a mini
fashion trend for wearing Russian dress because
this was a moment when England and Russia were
great allies.
And what's really fascinating about it is it's always
been known as Princess Charlotte's Russian dress.
The reason for that is that it's based on
the original Russian 'sarafan'.
We think that this painting, which is a copy after the original
painting by George Dawes, would have been
painted between 1818 after her death and 1825.
There is a much more ornate version of the portrait
in the National Portrait Gallery with the same dress
in a dark blue but with a much more ornate blouse
which has lacework and lovely pooled,
gathered openings to the sleeves.
This dress, although called Princess Charlotte's Russian dress,
almost certainly was made in England.
In fact in many ways it complies with contemporary
Regency dress for women. It would have been
quite normal for a day dress to be in this form,
worn over a shirt.
But it is nonetheless very richly produced
from this beautiful blue silk.
The blue silk is contrasted with this beautiful gold
thread braid which has this scalloped edge
and also it's highlighted with red embroidery,
almost like berries.
An earlier restoration really covered every
single drying crack and abrasion and slight
imperfection in the paint.
Our intention as restorers now is to do as
little as possible of this retouching or knitting
together in the case of some parts of this painting,
to do as little as possible to bring the painting
as close as possible to how it would
originally have appeared.
I'm looking at it and this is all of the
original painting that there is.
There are relatively few areas where
I consider it necessary to do some small areas
of retouching - up towards her ear and just above
the top edge of her blouse, where there's quite
a lot of abrasion through to the original texture
of the twill canvas.
What I think it one of the most remarkable features
of this dress is the fact that is has survived.
It's almost exactly 200 years old and I think
part of the reason for that is this rather poignant
reason that sadly this was one of the last
garments actually worn by Princess Charlotte
because she died just the following day after
giving birth to her stillborn son.
And we know that this was worn during
her pregnancy so it is a very late piece
in her wardrobe. And I think that could be the
primary reason why it has survived. It was kept,
it was something to be treasured and handed down
from generation to generation in the royal family.