Royal patronage gave him access to Kensington Palace to copy paintings including the Van Dyck of Charles I’s children.
It is not known for certain how and when the print came to Oxburgh Hall, the home of the Bedingfeld family, who were royalists and devout Catholics.
It is possible that the print arrived at Oxburgh soon after it was created in 1721-22, in the time of the 3rd Baronet, Sir Henry Arundell-Bedingfeld (1689-1760).
Ilana van Dort, Oxburgh collections and house manager, said: “There is now evidence that Henry Arundell-Bedingfeld was a secret Jacobite and van Dyck’s portrayal of the children of Charles I, including the future James II, the last Catholic monarch of Britain, would have great resonance and symbolism.
“James’ exiled son, James Francis Edward Stuart (the “Old Pretender”), had attempted to take the throne in the Jacobite rising of 1715, only six years before Le Blon copied van Dyck’s original portrait.
“Copies of this painting are known to been popular with those sympathetic to the Jacobite cause and it would have been quite feasible that the print has spent its whole life at Oxburgh, although we lack enough evidence to prove it,” she added.
The print will be on show at Oxburgh alongside some 16th century textile fragments, foundf beneath the floorboards of the hall during recent building work.
