The Prince of Great Britain (Portrait of James Stuart, the Old Pretender)
G Kneller ad vivum pinx:', 'I Smith fecit'.
Published by I Smith at ye golden Lyon in Russel Street, published (c.1688).
Mezzotint with extensive rocker work.
47 x 33 cm.
Literature: Chaloner Smith 1883 / British Mezzotinto portraits from the introduction of the art to the early part of the present century (246.III)
James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 - 1 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales from July 1688 until, just months after his birth, his Catholic father was deposed and exiled in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II's Protestant elder daughter (the prince's half-sister) Mary II and her husband (the prince's cousin) William III became co-monarchs. The Bill of Rights 1689 and Act of Settlement 1701 excluded Catholics such as James from the English and British thrones.
