Charles 1st King of Great Britain &c.

Sir Robert Strange after Sir Anthony Van Dyck
Charles 1st King of Great Britain &c.
London, 1770
Copper engraving
530x335mm
£220
A fine full length portrait of King Charles 1st in his Coronation robes. In the background is a pillar and draped curtain, with his Crown and Orb propped carelessly (significantly) against the base of the pillar. The painting has an odd history. It was in the Royal Collection until it was transported abroad by King James II when he fled to France in 1688. James gave it to Cardinal Phillip Howard and at Howard’s death it came into the possession of a James Edgar, secretary to the Old Pretender. The Scottish engraver Sir Robert Strange (1721-92), was an ardent Jacobite, and was advised to leave England after refusing to engrave a portrait of George III. He joined the Jacobite court in exile, and bought the painting when Edgar died in Rome.