The Sobieskis and Stuarts. Portrait of Clementina Sobieska, Étienne-Jehandier Desrochers, after 1726

engraved by Étienne-Jehandier Desrochers
copperplate on paper, after 1726
National Museum in Warsaw

The portrait of Clementina in an oval frame with inscriptions below the image was made around 1726 by Étienne-Jehandier Desrochers (1668–1741), a Parisian copperplate engraver, publisher, and seller. The print was included in a collection of engraved portraits entitled Recueil des portraits des personnes qui se sont distingués…, containing images of royal families, aristocrats, and famous figures from the times of Louis XV. The princess is depicted in a rich dress with a deep neckline and an ermine coat, with a young, cheerful face, her eyes turned directly at the viewer. Her outfit and coiffed hair are adorned with numerous jewels. The inscriptions below the portrait emphasise Clementina’s royal origins and the dynastic connection between the Sobieski and Stuart families. The text in the cartouche directly below the image refers imprecisely to the marriage per procura between granddaughter of the King of Poland, Princess Sobieska, and the Knight of Saint George, son of King of England James II, James III/VIII, known as the Pretender, in September 1718, in Oława, Silesia. In fact, the marriage per procura took place in Bologna in May 1719. The commemorative quatrain highlights the ancestry of Clementina, a descendant of Jan III, the heroic king and conqueror of the Turks, and the added splendour she enjoyed as a result of her royal marriage.