Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779–1845), Diplomat

Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay, was one of Britain’s most distinguished diplomats, serving as ambassador to France during the crucial post-Napoleonic period. Hayter painted him in 1830, the year of the July Revolution that Stuart witnessed firsthand in Paris. The Government Art Collection holds this portrait of a man who navigated some of the most turbulent diplomatic waters of early nineteenth-century Europe. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

The diplomat’s polished bearing and measured expression are rendered with appropriate formality. Hayter captures the self-possession required of a man who had represented Britain at the courts of Lisbon, Paris, and St. Petersburg.