There are two portraits of Prince Charles Edward Stuart in the Jacobites and Culloden collection, and they show the same man at two different moments in the Jacobite story. One was made in Rome for a court that had no throne. The other shows the prince as Scotland remembers him.
Rome, 1732: the hope of the exiled Stuarts
Charles was born in Rome, the grandson of James VII and II, the king overthrown in 1688. Antonio David's portrait, dated 1732, is the work of the Italian who was the official painter of the exiled Jacobite court. David worked for the Stuart dynasty for nearly twenty years, and copies of his portraits were sent out to the family's supporters across Europe.
That is the first thing worth knowing about the picture: it was made to be copied and circulated. The National Galleries of Scotland calls it proud and cheerful, and that is its job. It shows the supporters a prince worth waiting for.
The bonnet and the cockade
William Mosman's portrait is later, painted somewhere between about 1737 and 1750. Charles wears the Order of the Garter and a blue bonnet with a white cockade. The cockade stands for the white rose, a Jacobite emblem, and it was worn by the prince's troops in place of a formal uniform.
Mosman was probably born in Aberdeen. He became a pupil of Francesco Imperiali in Rome in 1732, the same year as David's portrait, and spent about six years in Italy before returning permanently to Scotland in 1740. Both paintings are now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
What happened next
In 1745 Charles led his Jacobite army as far south as Derby before it was forced to turn back. The rising was defeated at Culloden in 1746, and he escaped to France and lived the rest of his life in exile.
Both prints are made to order, framed in black, wood or white or unframed, and shipped free worldwide. The full collection is at Jacobites and Culloden.