Prince Charles Edward Stuart 1720 - 1788. Eldest son of Prince James Francis Edward Stuar
1776
On Display PORTRAIT GALLERY
- Scottish Art
'Drawn from nature at Florence, 1776', this pencil sketch of Prince Charles Edward at the age of fifty-five presents with touching informality the wary, embittered exile of his later life. The Jacobite defeat at Culloden lay thirty years in the past and his repeated attempts to urge the French to support a renewed effort had been ignored. Unable to accept failure, the Prince had ruined his health with heavy drinking and was unhappily married to Louisa, Princess of Stolberg, who was a pretty, intellectual girl half his age. Bored and neglected, she was fond of the company of poets and artists, and it was probably she who introduced the artist Ozias Humphry to Charles. Humphry had come to Italy with his friend George Romney, to recuperate from a serious riding accident.
