The Sobieskis and Stuarts. Portrait of James II/VII with his family, Pierre Mignard, 1694

Pierre Mignard, 1694
a reproduction of a painting from the Royal Collection 

In 1694, Pierre Mignard (1612–1695), court painter to King Louis XIV, received a commission from King James II/VII for a family group portrait which was intended to decorate one of the rooms in the king’s apartment in the north wing of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where the royal family lived in exile. The royal couple sit on armchairs resembling thrones, at a table covered with red cloth. On the left, next to his mother, stands the six-year-old James, Prince of Wales, gesturing towards a closed crown and a sword which rest on a cushion. Dressed in a blue gown, Louise-Marie, the couple’s two-year-old daughter and James’ only sister, sits on the table, holding a rose, an emblem of the Stuart family. King James, shown in profile, wears his ceremonial robes as the sovereign head of the Order of the Garter, England’s highest order of chivalry. The reproduction presented here is a much smaller preparatory study (modello) for the large work, which has remained for generations in the collection of Lord Stafford, descendant of a Catholic family loyal to the Stuarts.