Portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, half-length, wearing the Order of the Garter

Charles Edward Stuart, commonly known during his lifetime as the Young Pretender and later popularly as Bonnie Prince Charlie, was the instigator of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745. Charles believed the British throne was his birthright and staged an uprising with his Jacobite followers, attempting to depose King George II of the House of Hanover. Although Charles' attempt failed, it did gain him the status of a romantic figure of heroic failure in England. This previously unrecorded pastel is one of several versions by Rosalba showing the prince. While the portraits are not dated, the Stuart papers kept in the Royal Library shed light on the dating of them; correspondence between Owen O'Rourke, the Jacobite agent in Vienna and James, the Old Pretender, from 1737 state that Rosalba was making a pastel of Bonnie Prince Charles (N. Jeffares, op. cit., online edition [accessed December 2017], p. 2). Several other versions are known; one was sold at Christie's, London, 4 July 1995, lot 117, and another is in a Roman private collection (B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera 1673-1757. Maestra del pastello nell’Europa ancien régime, Turin 2007, nos. 362-3, ill.; N. Jeffares, op. cit., nos. J.21.0369 and J.21.0374). There are many other portraits of Charles at different ages, including two by Alan Ramsay of which one was recently re-discovered (L. Lax, 'The Lost Portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart' in Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobites, exhib. cat., Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland 2017, pp. 128-37).

We are very grateful to Neil Jeffares for his assistance in cataloguing this pastel.