Based on Kneller’s 1688 painting, this image presents the infant James swathed in regal ermine with the closed crown of a royal prince above his head. Mezzotint (then a relatively new printmaking technique) produces deep, velvety black tones, and is used here to create a sense of richly textured opulence. The print is not dated, but it was made before the Stuarts went into exile and remained widely available in Britain in the following years. Although Kneller was not a Jacobite, we cannot make assumptions about the loyalties of the printmaker. One of the most highly-regarded and successful of English engravers, Smith later travelled to France to copy Largillière’s double portrait of the prince and his sister, but he also produced portraits of the rival dynasty back in England.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (German, 1646 - 1723)
Kneller was a German artist who trained in Amsterdam under Ferdinand Bol and Rembrandt. He came to London in 1674 and became the leading portrait painter in England during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. The output from his studio was enormous and included effectively everyone of importance from the reign of Charles II to George I. Kneller popularised the Kit-Cat format for portraits (36 x 28 inches), named after his portraits of the members of the famous Whig dining club. The founding governor of the first academy of art in England, his position as court and society painter was unrivalled. Kneller was Principal Painter from 1689, and in 1715 was created a baronet, a rank that was not surpassed by any artist for over a century.
John Smith (English, 1652 - 1743)
Smith was one of the most highly-regarded and successful of English engravers. Born in Northampton, he first made mezzotints in 1683. For the first nine years of his career he produced prints for five main publishers and the majority of his output was portraiture. In 1687 he began publishing his own prints. Following the death of fellow engraver, Isaac Beckett, in 1688 Smith began producing prints of paintings by Godfrey Kneller, the leading portraitist in England in the late seventeenth – early eighteenth century. Kneller supplied him with a range of portraits of the most important people in Britain at the time, of whom many became his private patrons. Smith’s exceptional ability at the mezzotint process meant that he elevated it to a medium to rival traditional engraved portraits.
