Crown Prince Charles II of England (1630-1685), Prince of Wales

Entry

The youth of Charles II (1630-1685), Prince of Wales – and from 1660 on, King of England – coincided with a tumultuous period in England’s history, with the country plagued by civil war. In part for this reason, much of the prince’s early life was spent in exile on the European continent, where he resided at the princely courts in Paris and The Hague. The close ties between the Stuarts and the House of Orange were further enhanced with the marriage of Charles’s sister Mary (1631-1660) to Prince William II (1626-1650), later stadholder of the Dutch Republic, in 1641. Judging by Charles’s youthful appearance, the present marble bust was carved by the court sculptor François Dieussart (c. 1600-1661) very likely during one of the prince’s stays at the Hague court. As early as 1801, the bust was preserved at the Nationale Konst-Gallery, the Dutch national museum set up to hold the stadholders’ art collection and the precursor of the Rijksmuseum. Dieussart’s bust therefore probably entered the collection via the estate of Princess Mary, who may have received it from her brother during one of his visits to the Hague court or perhaps commissioned the work herself.

Although originating from the Southern Netherlands, the sculptor Dieussart acquired his knowledge of the profession in Rome. There he collaborated closely with the sculptor François du Quesnoy, a fellow countryman of greater renown, and Bernini.⁶ At the instigation of the art collector Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, Dieussart moved to London in 1636, where he was appointed as court sculptor to King Charles I, initiating a cleverly planned career aligned along the dynastic ties linking the princely Protestant courts of north-western Europe. At the request of Constantijn Huygens, secretary to Stadholder Frederick Henry, Dieussart arrived in The Hague July 1641, where he would remain in The Hague for a period of almost ten years, excepting a period of one year spent in Copenhagen (1643-1644). Wherever he stayed, Dieussart brought with him an expansive knowledge of the latest developments in Italian portrait sculpture.⁷ This artistic inheritance, the total absence of serious competitors and the availability of Italian marble were three factors that enabled him to become the foremost court portraitist of north-western Europe. Although lacking the virtuosity of Duquesnoy and a number of Italian sculptors, Dieussart greatly impressed with his modern, early-Baroque portrait style executed in marble – a style chiefly characterised by its dry, austere classicism void of theatrical effect.⁸

Dieussart’s arrival in The Hague was well timed, as the stadholder’s court was experiencing a cultural boom. New palaces were being built, ties were being established with princely courts abroad, and Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia (the ‘Winter Queen’) and her entourage were residing there in exile. Huygens is certain to have immediately understood the opportunities posed by the sculptor’s presence. Acting as a broker, he took measures to ensure Dieussart received a number of key commissions, including portrait busts of the stadholder’s family and relatives, e.g. the Winter Queen, Count John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, and the stadholders Frederick Henry and William I. In 1646, Dieussart also began working on a dynastic series of four life-size, full-length marble portraits destined for the vestibule of Huis ten Bosch Palace. These statues ultimately ended up in Potsdam, where they were destroyed during the Second World War.⁹ Huygens also arranged that Dieussart was commissioned as the sculptor of the tomb monument of Charles Morgan, the English governor of Bergen op Zoom.¹⁰ This work was to be the first purely classicist funeral monument in the Southern and Northern Netherlands. Dieussart derived his impressive depiction of mourning, so exquisitely conveyed in the full-length portraits of Morgan’s daughter Anna and her children on the grave, from a Hellenistic stele in Arundel’s collection.

Dieussart is certain to also have carved this bust portrait of Charles II during his years in The Hague. The crown prince is portrayed in his upper teens, indicating a dating of c. 1646-50. The bust is executed in the characteristic, austere, and somewhat dry classicism of Dieussart’s patent style, with his inspiration perhaps drawn from the gran maniera greca of the sculptor Du Quesnoy in Rome.¹¹ The only dynamic element introduced on the bust is the head turned to one side, a device he undoubtedly exported from Rome.

In 1651, the political climate in the Dutch Republic had changed dramatically. The semi-monarchical position of the Orange stadholders came to an end with the deaths of Frederick Henry and his overconfident son, William II. Power had shifted to the city regents and those of Amsterdam in particular. As a court sculptor, Dieussart’s chances of receiving a new major commission had completely diminished. Moreover, by this time a new and serious competitor had entered the picture: the Antwerp sculptor Artus Quellinus I (1609-1668). Dieussart subsequently departed for Berlin, where for several years he entered the service of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg. In 1656, he travelled to Flanders. During the final years of his career, Dieussart portrayed the English crown prince on two more occasions, this time for the militia guilds in Bruges, of which Charles had become a member during his exile.¹² While both of these busts depict the prince as a grown man, their execution displays the same dry style as that of the Rijksmuseum bust made several years earlier.

Frits Scholten, 2025