About this lot

Description

Portrait of King Carlo Emanuele IV of Sardinia (1751-1819), as a child, half length, in a red coat, wearing the order of the Annunziata inscribed to the reverse "CARLO EM.le FERDdo. Ma. PRIo. PIEMte /nato li 24 mago. 1751" oil on canvas, unlined 61 x 51cm

Footnote: Provenance: The Collection of S.A.R. La Principessa Reale Maria Beatrice di Savoia; Her Sale, Christie's, London, 22 April 2005, lot 1055, where acquired by the present owner Carlo Emanuele was the eldest son of King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia and his wife, the Infanta Antonia of Spain. In 1775, he married Marie Clotilde, sister of King Louis XVI of France, in a union arranged for political reasons. At the time of his succession to the throne in 1796, he ruled over a kingdom which included the island of Sardinia and territories in north-west Italy. However, by 1798, he was forced to abdicate his territories on the Italian mainland to the French Republic. He and his wife henceforth lived in Rome and Naples as guests of the wealthy Colonna family. After the death of his wife in 1802, Carlo Emanuele was said to be so distraught that he abdicated his Sardinian throne to his brother Vitorrio Emanuele. He retained his personal title of king and lived in Rome and Frascati, where he often visited his cousin, Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. Following the latter's death, Carlo Emanuele was recognised by the Jacobites as King Charles IV of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, although he never made any attempts to pursue the British throne. In 1815, he took vows in the Society of Jesus and lived out the rest of his life at the Jesuite novitiate in Rome.

Condition report: The present painting is believed to be by a contemporary follower of Duprà . Oil on canvas which appears to be unlined and is attached to a modern stretcher. The canvas is in plane with slight stretcher bar marks. There is an old damage at the centre, left hand corner which has been repaired. There are areas of retouching, mainly based around the edges of the painting. The varnish is clear and even.

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