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Charles Parrocel (1688-1752)

Charles, Prince de Nassau c.1725-50

Oil on canvas | 80.4 x 64.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 403390

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  • There are four paintings of horsemen by Parrocel in the collection of similar dimensions and frame styles, which were hanging together in the Armory at Carlton House in 1816 (nos 484-7). This prompted John Robinson (Surveyor 1880-1901) to suggest, in an annotation to this Carlton House inventory, that they were ‘all of the same style & I think companions to Charles Prince of Nassau’. They are almost certainly two pairs brought together by George IV, the frame design of one of the pairs probably then commissioned by him to match the other. This is one of the pair (with RCIN 403389) bought by George IV and delivered to Carlton House in 7 June 1808.

    This image is reproduced in an engraving in François Robichon de la Guérinière, Ecole de Cavalerie, 1733, page 258, inscribed as ‘L. Desplaces’ after ‘C. Parrocel’. A drawing for this figure in the Royal Collection (RCIN 913137) would seem to be associated with this engraving. The image is labelled with the manoeuvre illustrated – La Courbette – rather than the identity of the sitter. In the inventories of Carlton House of 1816 and 1819 this painting is mentioned in the Armory and described as ‘Parrocel, Charles, Prince of Nassau on a black horse’. If this identification is correct the sitter must be the twenty-year old Charles, Prince de Nassau-Usingen (1712-75).
    Provenance

    One of the pair (with 403389) acquired by George IV from Colnaghi's in 9 May 1808 for 30 guineas; listed in the Armory at Carlton House in 1816 (no 486) and 1819 (no 513); sent to the King's Lodge (Royal Lodge) in Windsor Park in September 1823

  • Medium and techniques

    Oil on canvas

    Measurements

    80.4 x 64.8 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)

    97.8 x 81.1 x 5.3 cm (frame, external)

  • Alternative title(s)

    Charles, Prince of Nassau

    "La pésade"


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