Abstract
This chapter examines the role played by art in relations between the Stuarts and the Sobieskis. It presents two portraits of the infant Prince Charles in Polish dress commissioned by Clementina Sobieska that provide possible precedents for the NPG portrait, and discusses her artistic strategies.
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Notes
- 1.
Corp 2011, 213–25.
- 2.
Gregg, Edward. 2003. The financial vicissitudes of James III in Rome. In Corp, Edward & Fowle, Francis, eds. The Stuart Court in Rome. The Legacy of Exile. Aldershot: Ashgate, 74–6.
- 3.
See, for example, the letters from Charles to Jakub of 1732, 1734, 1735, and 1737 in AGAD, AR 249.
- 4.
Wortley, Clara Stuart. 1948. Data from the Stuart Papers at Windsor dealing with the Portraits of the Royal Stuarts. Prepared by the Hon. Clara Stuart Wortley and edited, after her death, by Henrietta Tayler. 1948: Heinz Archive, NPG, section ii, 17.
- 5.
Corp 2001, 64.
- 6.
Nicholas 1973, 46.
- 7.
I am grateful to Jo Langston of Christies for supplying information about the sale, and the image from the sale catalogue. The catalogue description reads: “PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD STUART, the Young Pretender ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ as a child, by Catherine Sperlingin, signed and dated 1726, standing in a wooded landscape dressed in scarlet with fur-trimmed cloak and hat, and a scarlet cane on his left arm—rectangular, 3¾ in. (99 cm.) high—in turned wood frame. The young Prince was probably dressed in Polish costume because his mother, Clementina Sobieska, was a Polish Princess”.
- 8.
Charles Edward Stuart by Catharina Sperling, née Hackel, 1726. http://tansey-miniatures.com/en/collection/#/10658, accessed 28 July 2016.
- 9.
https://www.auctionclub.com/public/historic/attributed-to%2D%2Dcatharina-sperling-heckel-33943/prince-charles-edward-stuart-the-young-pretender-33150/ and http://www.blouinartinfo.com/artists/catharina-sperling-heckel-173481, accessed 28 July 2016. Pappe, Bernd & Schmieglitz-Otten, Juliane. 2008. Miniaturen des Rokoko aus der Sammlung Tansey, 230. Munich: Hirmer Verlag; Schmidt-Liebich, Jochen. 2005. Lexikon Der Kunstlerinnen 1700–1900. Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur, 184–5.
- 10.
RA SP/MAIN/, 106/12.
- 11.
Corp 2011, 117.
- 12.
Information from Artnet.com: https://www.artnet.com/PDB/FAADSearch/LotDetailView.aspx?Page=1&artType=FineArt&subTypeId=307. Accessed 2 October 2016. The reserve price listed in the catalogue was 12–16,000 euros.
- 13.
James to Jakub Sobieski, Bologna, 4 April 1728, Sobiesciana. 1883. 20, no. 87.
- 14.
Wortley suggests that this was the Bologna painter Stefano Torelli (1712–1784): Data, section ii, 25, but in fact James was referring to Giovanna Fratellini, having previously employed Lucia Casalini Torelli; the paintings by both artists have all been lost: Corp 2001, 108.
- 15.
Clementina to Jakub Sobieski, Rome, 8 June 1729, Sobiesciana. 1883, 21, no. 97.
- 16.
“On vient d’achever les Portraits de mes Enfans, qui sont assez bien faits. Je les ferai copier en petit comme vous avez desiré, et vous les enverrai au plutôt”. James to Jakub Sobieski, Albano, 12 February 1735, AGAD, AR dz. III, 276, 52.
- 17.
James to Jakub Sobieski, 23 July 1735, AGAD, AR, dz. III, 276, 53.
- 18.
Corp 2001, 70.
- 19.
James to Maria Karolina, 7 April 1736, Sobiesciana. 1883, 29, no. 136.
- 20.
It is widely claimed that David died in 1750, but it is known from a letter of Charles, King of the Two Sicilies, that he died in 1737: Corp 2011, 286.
- 21.
“J’ai entre mes mains la Relique de la Ste Croix que vous avez souhaité pour vous etre envoyée par la premiere bonne occasion, avec les Portraits de mes Enfants pour ma Belle Soeur, a laquelle Je vous prie de faire mes tendres compliments”. James to Jakub Sobieski, 5 October 1736, AGAD, AR, dz. III, 276, 58.
- 22.
Corp 2001, 72.
Bibliography
Secondary Sources
Corp, Edward. 2001. The King over the Water. Portraits of the Stuarts in Exile after 1689. Edinburgh: Scottish National Portrait Gallery.
Corp, Edward. 2011. The Stuarts in Italy 1719–1766. A Royal Court in Permanent Exile. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nicholas, Donald. 1973. The Portraits of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Maidstone: Clout & Baker.
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Frost, R.I. (2022). Portraits for the Sobieskis. In: The Polish Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99936-0_5
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