The Sobieskis and Stuarts. Portrait of James III/VIII, Alexis Simon Belle, 1712

oil on canvas, 1712
private collection

Alexis Simon Belle (1674–1734), a pupil and close associate of François de Troy (1645–1730), began to paint portraits for the Stuarts in 1698 and produced many of James, both as Prince of Wales and as king. Four original versions of this one were created. One was intended for the king’s mother, Mary of Modena; one for James himself; and the remaining two for Louis XIV and, most probably, James Drummond, Duke of Perth. This painting was the most important portrait of James, almost his official portrait at that point in his life.

The promotion of images of the Stuarts, especially James III/VIII as the rightful claimant to the crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was a deliberate effort to preserve the memory of the legitimate rulers living in exile across the English Channel. Several smaller versions of this portrait were created en buste, as well as engraved copies, which were distributed in continental Europe and Great Britain.

The portrait presents the 24-year-old James, titular King of England, Scotland and Ireland, who was known to his enemies at the time, and is still referred to in most British books, as the ‘Old Pretender’ (meaning ‘Claimant’). His son, Prince Charles Edward, would later be referred to as the Young Pretender. 

He is shown in three-quarter length from slightly above the knees, dressed in a justaucorps (a long, collarless men’s frock coat of a cut inspired by military fashion), over which he wears a breastplate, with the blue sash of the Order of the Garter. His left hand rests on a helmet. The presence of armour suggests the prince’s military prowess and readiness to fight for the crown of his ancestors. 

But it should be noted that there is no crown shown in this portrait, because James never included one in any of his portraits during the lifetime of his half-sister Queen Anne, whom he was hoping and expecting would name him as her successor. Only after the accession of the King George I, the Elector of Hanover, did James instruct his portrait painters to include a closed crown in his portraits.

One of the courtiers of the Stuarts described the portrait in these words: “Indeed nothing can resemble him more than it does ..., and none ever yet done in any way’s comparable to it.”