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1 of 253523 objects
Princess Mary, later Queen (1516-1558) 1537-43
Black and coloured chalks with black ink and blue watercolour on pink prepared paper | 38.6 x 29.1 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 912220
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A portrait drawing of Princess Mary (1516-1558) on pink prepared paper. She is shown half length, facing three quarters to the left, wearing a necklace and pendant. The drawing is greatly rubbed and much of the chalk detail in her face has been lost. The outlines of her features have been reinforced in black ink. No painting or miniature after this drawing is known.
An eighteenth-century inscription (a copy of a mid-sixteenth-century original) at top left identifies the sitter as 'The Lady Mary after Queen'.
Princess Mary was the daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. She was declared illegitimate by the 1534 Act of Succession, but returned to her father's favour after the execution of Anne Boleyn and was godmother to her half brother Prince Edward. Her father's will restored her to her place in the succession after Edward. From her brother's accession, Mary, who remained a Catholic, became the focus for opposition to reform. Despite attempts to prevent her accession, she was proclaimed queen as Mary I after Edward's death in 1553, and ruled until her death in 1558. This drawing must date from after her return to favour in 1537.Provenance
Henry VIII; Edward VI, 1547; Henry FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel; by whom bequeathed to John, Lord Lumley, 1580; by whom probably bequeathed to Henry, Prince of Wales, 1609, and thus inherited by Prince Charles (later Charles I), 1612; by whom exchanged with Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, 1627/8; by whom given to Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel; acquired by Charles II by 1675
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Creator(s)
Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Black and coloured chalks with black ink and blue watercolour on pink prepared paper
Measurements
38.6 x 29.1 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
Other number(s)
RL 12220Featured in
ExhibitionHenry VIII : a 500th anniversary exhibition : Drawings Gallery
explores the life of one of the most significant figures in the history of the English monarchy
ExhibitionThe Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein : The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
Over 100 works by the greatest Northern European artists of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries