Circle of Hans Holbein II (1497-1543)

Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VI (1537-1553), as a child, half-length, in a crimson velvet doublet embroidered with lines of gold braid and with gold brocade sleeves, a crimson velvet hat tied under his chin, with jewelled ornaments and a white ostrich feather, holding a gold rattle

Details

Circle of Hans Holbein II (1497-1543)
Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VI (1537-1553), as a child, half-length, in a crimson velvet doublet embroidered with lines of gold braid and with gold brocade sleeves, a crimson velvet hat tied under his chin, with jewelled ornaments and a white ostrich feather, holding a gold rattle
inscribed 'PARVVLE PATRISSA, PATRIAE VIRTVTIS ET HAERES
ESTO, NIHIL MAIVS MAXIMUS ORBIS HABET.
GNATUM VIX POSSVNT COELVM ET NATVRA DEDISSE,
HVIVS QUEM PATRIS, VICTUS HONORET HONOS.
AEQUATO TANTVM, TANTI TV FACTA PARENTIS,
VOTA HOMINVM, VIX QVO PROGREDIANTVR, H(A)BENT
VINCITO, VICISTI, QVOT REGES PRISCVS ADORAT
ORBIS, NEC TE QVI VINCERE POSSIT, ERIT. Ricard. Mory. Car'
oil on panel
23¼ x 17½in. (59 x 44.5cm.)

Provenance

Sir Robert Strange; Christie's, 5 May 1775, lot 51, 'Holbein, A Portrait of Edward VI, formerly in the Royal Collection and presumed to be one of the capital works of this master' (12½gns. to Sir Richard Worsley).
Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Bt., of Appuldurcombe (1751-1805), and by inheritance through his niece, Henrietta Anna Maria Charlotte Simpson, wife of Charles Anderson-Pelham, 2nd Baron and 1st Earl of Yarborough to Charles Alfred, 4th Earl of Yarborough, 17 Arlington Street; Christie's, 12 July 1929, lot 40 (9,500gns. to Harvey for the following).
John, 4th Marquess of Bute (1881-1947) and by descent at Mount Stuart.

Literature

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857, Supplemental volume, p. 67, as Holbein.
A.B. Chamberlain, Holbein, London, 1913, II, pl. 22.
K.T. Parker, The Drawings of Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty the King at Windsor Castle, Oxford and London, 1945, under no. 46.
P. Ganz, The Paintings of Hans Holbein, London, 1950, under no. 105.
R. Strong, National Portrait Gallery, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, London, 1968, I, p. 92, as after Holbein.
H.W. Grohn, L'Opera Pittorica Completa di Holbein il Giovane, Milan, 1971, under no. 115.
J. Rowlands, Holbein, Oxford, 1985, under no 70, 'An excellent version evidently early but not by Holbein'.
J.O. Hand with S.E. Mansfield, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art (Washington) Systematic Catalogue, German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, Washington and Cambridge, 1993, under no. 64.
S. Foister, in Dynasties, Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1530-1630, Catalogue of the exhibition at the Tate Gallery, edited by K. Hearn, London, 1995, under no. 6.

Exhibited

London, British Institution, 1849, no. 27.
Manchester, Art Treasures, British Portrait Gallery, 1857, no. 55, as Unknown, King Edward VI, at the age of six.
South Kensington, National Portrait Exhibition, 1866, no. 176, as Holbein.
London, Royal Academy, Winter Exhibition, 1875, no. 178, as Holbein.
London, New Gallery, Tudor Exhibition, 1890, no. 174, as Holbein.
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1909, no. 62, as Holbein.

Lot Essay

Edward, Prince of Wales, was the only son of Henry VIII by his third wife, Jane Seymour (d. 1537), daughter of Sir John Seymour of Wolf Hall, Savernake, Wiltshire. They had married on 19 May 1536 and Edward was born at Hampton Court on 12 Oct. 1537. He succeeded to the throne of England on the death of his father, Henry VIII, on 21 Jan. 1547, aged only nine under the guidance of a Council of Regency, vary which soon appointed his uncle, Edward, 1st Earl of Hertford, later Duke of Somerset, Governor and Protector of the Realm during the King's minority. Somerset remained the dominant figure at court until his influence was eclipsed by that of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, later Duke of Northumberland. The latter's influence over the young King remained unchallenged from the execution of Somerset in 1551 until Edward VI's death on 6 July 1553. Although only fifteen at the time of his death, Edward VI displayed an interest in religious policy at an early age and his reign is notable for the continuation and consolidation of the English reformation for which he was praised by European protestants and which his sister Mary, who succeeded him as Queen of England, was unable to reverse.

This is the best surviving version of Holbein's celebrated picture now at Washington, which is generally considered to be the 'table of the pictour of the pince (prince's) grace' presented by Holbein on 1 January 1539/40, when the sitter was a little over two (see R. Strong, op. cit., p. 91). The Washington picture in turn was based on Holbein's drawing in the Royal Collection (see K.T. Parker, op. cit., no. 46, pl. 46). An expanded full-length version, from which the rattle is omitted, is in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland at Syon, and was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Kings and Queens Exhibition, 1953, no. 80.

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