This is one of a number of propaganda portraits depicting Bonnie Prince Charlie, painted around the 1750s and dressed in a full tartan suit, known as a Harlequin portrait. It is loosely based on a portrait showing Bonnie Prince Charlie standing grandly by the shore as the standard is bring raised, with William Delacour being mentioned as the possible artist. It was known that the Duke of Perth sent Charlie full Highland dress which this could mimic.

These naive Harlequin portraits probably owe their immediate origin to the crude pro-Jacobite image engraved by a G Will, after the elusive Wassdail. All the differing elements are added on piece by piece to complete the presentation of Charles as Highlander, with appropriate accoutrements, standing within an idealized landscape. Examples of this Harlequin type can be seen in Traquair House, Oxburgh, Kinross, Thornbury Castle, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Drambuie Collection of old.