Prince Charles Edward Stuart
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© National Portrait Gallery, London
Early Georgian Portraits Catalogue
Prince Charles Edward Stuart
attributed to Thomas Pingo Jr
circa 1745-1750
1 5/8 in. (41 mm) diameter
NPG 1052
Inscriptionback to top
Obverse inscribed: CAROLUS WALLIAE PRINCEPS/1745.
Reverse inscribed at top: AMOR ET SPES and at bottom, below a single rule, on plain background, BRITANNIA.
This portraitback to top
The obverse is identical with a 1750 medal, for which receipts survive, recording payment to Pingo for the striking of examples in gold, silver and copper [1] (a silver strike is in the Scottish NPG). Although the medal is inscribed 1745, a letter requesting permission for the striking of the medal and referring to Roettiers as the artist, was written at the end of March 1748. [2] Charles, it has been suggested, wished the medal to commemorate the '45; it was thus ante-dated for 'presentation to those who had helped him in his adventure'. [3] The face mask clearly relates to Lemoyne's plaster bust of Charles in the Scottish NPG (551), deriving from one made in 1746 [4] (see All Known Portraits).
Footnotesback to top
1) H. Farquhar, 'Some Portrait-Medals struck between 1745 and 1752 for Prince Charles Edward', British Numismatic Journal, XVII, 1923-4, pp 587-8.
2) Extracts from the Stuart papers, Royal Archives, Windsor, vol.290, letter 65.
3) H. Farquhar, 'Some Portrait-Medals struck between 1745 and 1752 for Prince Charles Edward', British Numismatic Journal, XVII, 1923-4, p 179.
4) Extracts from the Stuart papers, Royal Archives, Windsor, IV, pp 6, 12-13.
Physical descriptionback to top
Obverse: Profile, head and neck only, to the right; hair falling to nape of neck; no drapery.
Reverse: Britannia standing on seashore, one hand on her shield, in the other a spear; ships on the left.
Reproductionsback to top
Engraved by Sir Robert Strange, 1749. [1]
1) Reproduced H. Farquhar, 'Some Portrait-Medals struck between 1745 and 1752 for Prince Charles Edward', British Numismatic Journal, XVII, 1923-4, opposite p 183, from the engraving in the British Museum, used to head a contemporary broadsheet eulogising Charles.
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Kerslake, Early Georgian Portraits, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1977, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.
View all known portraits for Prince Charles Edward Stuart