Oval, in a gold frame, 6.1cm. Engraved on the reverse: ‘Princess Louisa of Stolberg Wife to the Pretender.’
At the age of twenty Princess Louise was married to the much older Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), known as the Young Pretender.
As a dashing young man, and folk hero, he had planned incessantly, and risked all on more than one occasion, to regain the English Crown for his father, James, the Old Pretender (1688-1766), and for the Stuart dynasty.
He had shown great bravery, fortitude and determination during those years, though by the time of the marriage, his life had become one of disappointment and bitterness and he was becoming increasingly drunk and dissolute.
After their marriage, they lived mainly in Italy, where they were known as the Count and Countess of Albany, but eventually, after about twelve years they separated.
Ozias Humphry was a leading portait miniaturist in the 18th Century, later turning to larger works in oil and pastel as his sight began to fail. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1791 and became Portrait Painter in Crayons to the King the following year.
