Master Paintings and Drawings
Master Paintings and Drawings
Property from a Private Collection, Sold Without Reserve
Follower of Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of King Henry VIII, bust-length
Lot Closed
March 23, 02:02 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 7,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Private Collection, Sold Without Reserve
Follower of Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of King Henry VIII, bust-length
inscribed and dated at the upper left: Æt 53/1545
oil on canvas, laid down on panel
panel: 25 by 19 in.; 63.5 by 48.3 cm.
framed: 42 ½ by 33 ½ in.; 108 by 85.1 cm.
With G. Newstead Antiques, Knaresborough, from whom purchased by Roger Warner on 31 March 1958;
With Roger Warner, by whom sold to a
Private collector, England;
Anonymous sale, Wyecroft Hall, near Axminster, where purchased a second time by Roger Warner;
His sale, London, Christie’s South Kensington, 20 January 2009, lot 8;
Anonymous sale (Property from an English Private Collection), London, Sotheby's, 30 October 2017, lot 9;
There acquired.
This portrait is a derivation of Holbein’s portrait mural of King Henry VIII at Whitehall Palace, London, which was destroyed in 1698 and recorded only in two reduced copies by Remigius van Leemput.1 Painted on an unstretched close-weave cloth (probably linen or hemp), this work is perhaps a "painted cloth" portrait of the King produced as a wall-hanging for domestic display. Although overpainted in parts, much of the paint surface appears to date to the 16th century.
1. See J. Rowlands, Holbein. The paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger, Oxford 1985, p. 224-226, cat. no. L14, L14a -b. The copies are at Hampton Court, inv. no. 308, and Petworth House, Sussex, inv. no. 34.7.