Exhibited at the Royal Academy, Zoffany's portrait of the royal family was meant as a conversation piece (a relaxed 18th-century group portrait showing informal, domestic interaction), but its forced formality makes it stiff and conventional, lacking the ease and warmth the genre requires. King George and Queen Charlotte, along with their children, are too obviously posing for the artist. Zoffany clearly draws on Van Dyck by dressing the royal family in stylised, historical costumes typical of his portraiture, and by adopting his graceful poses and familiar compositional layout. The two princes on George's right closely resemble those in Van Dyck’s 1635 portrait George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and His Brother Lord Francis Villiers.