Lot 570
J. BOND (EIGHTEENTH CENTURY SCOTTISH SCHOOL)
LADY CHARLOTTE STUART, DAUGHTER OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD
Scottish Silver & Applied Arts
Auction: 15 August 2018 at 11:00 BST
Description
Inscribed on stretcher verso, oil on canvas, unframed
Dimensions
76cm x 63.5cm (30in x 25in)
Footnote
Provenance:
The Hardy Collection, Christie's London 22nd January 1954
English Country House Collection
Private Collection
Notes:
Charlotte Stuart Duchess of Albany
1753-1789
The heir to the Jacobite throne, Charlotte was born to Charles Edward Stuart and his Scottish mistress Clementina Walkinshaw at Liège in October 1753.
Her parents, unmarried, it was only in 1784 when Charles legitimised her and created her Duchess of Albany in the Jacobite Peerage on his death bed. This is particularly so, as she was his only child to survive infancy.
On March 30, 1783, Charles as King Charles III signed an Act of Legitimation by which he recognised his natural daughter, Charlotte. This Act of Legitimation was forwarded to King Louis XVI of France who confirmed it and had it registered in the Parlement de Paris.
When Charlotte moved to live with Charles in Florence at the Palazzo San Clemente in October 1784, Charlotte nursed her father and in the latter years of his life ensured he returned to the Palazzo Muti in Rome. She sacrificed everything to be with him including her mother and her own illegitimate children.
Her letters home to her mother while living with Charles in Italy reflect her agonising conflict of loyalty to both parents.
Clementina had removed Charlotte from Charles at a young age, raising her in convents across the continent. Charles's refusal to acknowledge her mother meant that she was never to see her mother or her children which were a secret she kept all her life from her father.
On her death the Cardinal Duke of York revoked her claim and those relating to her.
However there has been much conversation around her heirs and it is through Charlotte that the Jacobite sentiment is alive today. Furthermore, the romanticism of the Duchess of Albany has been epitomised throughout history and nonetheless by Robert Burns
This lovely maid's of nobel blood,
That ruled Albion's kingdoms three;
But Oh, Alas! for her bonie face,
They hae wrang'd the lass of ALBANIE.