Three children of K. Henry VII and Elizabeth his Queen.

  • Vertue, George, 1684-1756
Date:
1748
Reference:
570449i
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About this work

Also known as

Previous title, replaced September 2023: Three children of King Christian II of Denmark, and Isabella of Habsburg: (left to right) Princess Dorothea, Prince John, and Princess Christina. Engraving by G. Vertue after J. Gossaert, 1748.
Also known as: The children of Christian II, King of Denmark, and Isabella of Habsburg: (left to right) Princess Dorothea, Prince John, and Princess Christina

Description

After a painting described in the 1542 inventory of Henry VIII’s collection at Whitehall (or another version of it) as "… oone table with the pictures of the 3 children of the King of Denmarks … ". The children were therefore identified as three children of King Christian II of Denmark, and Isabella of Habsburg: (left to right) Princess Dorothea, Prince John, and Princess Christina. The lettering of the present print, which represents them as Prince Arthur, Prince Henry and Princess Margaret, children of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, reflects the title that was given to the painting when it was re-discovered in the Royal Collection in the early 18th century. The future King Henry VIII (b. 1491) is not known to have visited Middelburg (where Gossaert mainly worked) as a child, nor is Gossaert known to have visited England at the time. Given the age of the central figure, if it were Henry, the painting would have to have been painted before about 1500, but Gossaert did not become a member of the Guild of Saint Luke at Antwerp until 1503, let alone enjoy royal patronage (Campbell, loc. cit.)

Publication/Creation

[London] : [publisher not identified], 1748.

Physical description

1 print : engraving ; image 45.6 x 55 cm

Lettering

Three children of K. Henry VII and Elizabeth his queen. ... I. Maubeugius pinxit. ; G. Vertue London delin. et sculp. 1748

References note

Lorne Campbell, The early Flemish pictures in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1985, no. 34, pp. 53-56, n. 48 ("Caroline of Ansbach, however, took a strong interest in Holbein's work, and it seems to have been she who acquired the Gossaert Portrait of the children of Christian II of Denmark (No. 34). A version of this portrait had belonged to Henry VIII and to Charles I, but had left the collection under the Commonwealth; it may have been Charles I's picture which Caroline acquired, and Vertue certainly believed that it had been his. Caroline's painting was considered to be a portrait of Henry VII's children, was occasionally attributed to Holbein, and for a time was placed, with Holbein’s portrait drawings, in Queen Caroline's Closet at Kensington.")

Notes

The title has been taken from wording on the object.

Reference

Wellcome Collection 570449i

Creator/production credits

Vertue was given permission on 25 February 1743 by Jane Kien (d. 1762), housekeeper to George II, to copy various pictures by Holbein at Kensington Palace, as a result of a warrant issued to her by the Lord Chamberlain (Samuel Gedge, catalogue no. XVIII, no. 57)

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