Prince Charles Edward Stuart, 1720 - 1788. Eldest son of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart

This is the last portrait of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, painted a couple of years before his death. Hamilton, an Irish artist living in Rome, also depicted Charles’s daughter, Charlotte, and his brother, Cardinal York. Charles returned to live in Rome in December 1785 and spent his final years in the palace where he had been born. Reconciliation with Charlotte, who nursed her father, and an improvement in his finances ensured some comfort for a man in steep physical and mental decline. Charles died on 30 January 1788, following a major stroke which left him semi-paralysed. The pope refused to allow a royal burial in St Peter’s, so Cardinal York conducted the funeral at his own cathedral at F...