Sellingantiques.co.uk Logo
 26,152 visitors today 224 antiques approved today, Mon 14 July

Portrait Of Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) C.1650; Attributed To Henry Stone (1616-1653), Manor House Provenance

Status: This item has been sold
Sold by: Titan Fine Art

This is an item with an interesting provenance from one of England’s finest stately homes with a long and intriguing history. This work formed part of a collection of family pictures and heirlooms of the Brocket Baronets, family seat Brocket Hall. The portrait used to hang in Brocket Hall''s library - see photos.
 
This elegant portrait of the Queen portrays her serenely composed, standing half-length by her crown which is resting on a draped curtain, and her right hand caressing a rose on a table, an emblem of the pleasures of pain and love, beauty, and mortality. It is a majestic image, one that aptly illustrates the subject’s royalty and symbolically represents her desirable attributes of modesty and fertility. Ultimately the artist has created an image which presents the Queen as she would have wished to be perceived. The pose and the arrangement are simple yet the composition is one of the most subtlety beautiful, tenderly graceful, and exquisite.
 
Our painting is a contemporary version, probably painted circa 1650. It derives from a painting by Van Dyke of the Queen which is thought to be the first single portrait of her painted on his arrival in England in 1632. It is one of Antony Van Dyke’s most important and beautiful images of the Queen. A warrant dated 8 Aug 1632 for payments to him by the Crown included £20 for a portrait of “our royall consort”. The portrait was the one that King Charles I liked best for he had it hung in his bedchamber at Whitehall. Many contemporary versions were painted, ours is unique in that the crown is positioned in the right hand margin, on luxurious golden drapery (inspired directly from Van Dyke’s portrait of the Queen with Jeffrey Hudson painted 1633, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC).
 
Van Dyke invented this type of “careless romantic” clothing for his female sitters in England; the style was popular in portraits of court ladies. The silk contains hardly visible decorative cuts (pinks) on the fabric. Throughout the 1630s there was no real change to this iconic image. Had Van Dyke left but this one image of the Queen she would live for us the embodiment of grace, happiness, and queenly dignity.
 
A feature of this portrait is its exquisite 17th century carved and gilded auricular frame. The design, having originated in Italy, was a popular style particularly for Van Dyke’s paintings and frame makers working in London embraced this fashion with enthusiasm, using it for pictures from the 1630s to the 1680s. Examples can be found in Ham House, Richmond, and in the National Portrait Gallery, London. This frame, containing an inscription of the sitter and artist, is carved by hand and retains the original gilding; they are very sought after objects by museums and collectors and in this size, do not appear often for sale.
 
Henry Stone (1616-1653) was an English painter and an excellent copyist of the works of Van Dyck. He was the eldest son of notable sculptor and architect Nic...
Antique #SA581818, shown on this page, originates from the 17th century. For historical context, the timeline below highlights the period when it was made:
←C17th
Famous inventions historic timeline graphic to help to give historical context to the date of this antique.
CONTACT DETAILS OF SELLER:
TITAN FINE ART PROFILE PHOTO WHICH LINKS TO DEALER PAGE
Titan Fine Art
Specialist dealer in portraits from the 17th to the 20th century. All stock is in excellent condition and can be hung & enjoyed immediately.
London
United Kingdom
STATUS
THIS ITEM HAS BEEN SOLD
HISTORIC TIMELINE OPTIONS
mgctlbxN$MZ mgctlbxV$5.3.7 mgctlbxL$C