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Charles Edward Stuart, The Young Pretender
Unknown - Enlarge image
Charles Edward Stuart, The Young Pretender
- Object:
Relief
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
mid 18th century (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
wax
- Credit Line:
Schreiber Bequest.
- Museum number:
414:1359-1885
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This portrait relief in wax depicts Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender (1720- 1788). Charles Edward Stuart, a descendant of James II was the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of Great Britain and Ireland. The Jacobite forces were defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Culloden in 1745 and Charles escaped to France.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, low relief portraits in wax became popular in Britain and they were often exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Society of Artists and elsewhere. Waxes were used in a similar way to prints and medals, in order to disseminate the image of the sitter, or, like miniature paintings or silhouettes as portable mementoes.
