Tea at Trianon: Lost Portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, March 21, 2022

Lost Portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart

From Wikipedia:

In 2009, Grosvenor revealed that the subject of the best-known portrait of Charles Edward Stuart,^[3] the 5-foot (1.5-metre) pastel by the French artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour that had been hanging in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery since 1994,^[4]^[5] was in fact of Charles's younger brother Henry Benedict Stuart.^[1] This portrait had until then been widely reproduced and was "immortalised on countless tins of shortbread",^[3] as well as appearing in the entry for Charles in the Dictionary of National Biography and numerous book covers, postcards and souvenirs.^[3] Grosvenor said: "Bonnie Prince Charlie is one of my heroes, and I always felt bad about debunking what used to be his most famous portrait. So I'm delighted to have found the best possible replacement – a portrait painted from life on the eve of his invasion of England."^[6] Whilst attempting to find this replacement – an authentic painting of Charles from the period of the Jacobite rising of 1745 – Grosvenor discovered a letter in the Royal Archives from John Stuart, the valet to Charles, that instructed Ramsay to go to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh to paint Charles's portrait:^[3]^[5]
Sir, you are desired to come to the Palace of Holyroodhouse as soon as possible in order to take his Royal Highness’ picture. So I expect you’ll wait no further call. I am, your most humble servant, John Stuart, Holyrood House 26th of October 1745.^[7]

He also found a black and white photograph of the Ramsay portrait in the records of the National Portrait Gallery in London, although the artist was not given as Ramsay.^[5] This painting was at Gosford House, the home of the Earl of Wemyss, where it had hung in increasing obscurity for 250 years in a gloomy corridor on the ground floor.^[3] The painting was known to be of Charles but it was not known that Ramsay was the artist.^[7] Ramsay authority Duncan Thomson, former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, authenticated it as a work by Ramsay and said: "This portrait brings the prince back to life in a way I'd never thought imaginable. It's hard to overstate the importance of finding a portrait of the prince painted in Scotland, by a Scottish artist."^[5]
On 30 March 2016, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery announced that the painting had been acquired for the nation through the acceptance in lieu scheme, with the painting being valued at greater than £1.1 million.^[2] It was placed on display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery just before the 270th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden.^[2] (Read more.)