3-002-824 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Queen Henrietta Maria, c1635. Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) was the French-born queen of England and wife of King Charles I. The most famous life-size portraits of her are by the great Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck whose elegant style influenced English portraitists, including those like Hoskins who specialized in miniatures. In contrast to earlier English portrait miniatures, this one includes the kind of landscape detail that Van Dyck often included. The queen was a Catholic in a country that was completely dominated by Protestant forces. As she is wearing a jewelled crucifix, a characterisitc piece of Catholic devotional jewellery that Protestants at this time would have taken as inappropriate, it seems likely that this portrait was for a Catholic supporter, for whom she raises her right hand toward her heart.