Rare Elizabeth I portraits go on free display in central London

"The free display at Philip Mould gallery puts the earliest surviving life-size, full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I in a room surrounded by her favourites and courtiers. Names that echo down history are here and will be familiar to most people - Walsingham, Essex, Cecil, Burley - and of course, Robert Dudley. And they swirl around four rare portraits of the Queen, including one that is very unusual indeed."

"Three might look like you would expect, but one painted in the earliest days of her reign shows a very modest and quite unassuming person who could pass for any random painting of a wealthy lady of the time. Portrait painters were still struggling to work out how to paint a female monarch, known as the "Clopton Portrait"; it's almost masculine in style and lacks the trappings of regal grandeur we'd expect."

"There's a suggestion that this is a marriage proposal portrait - to be sent to a prospective husband as the codes in the background all show symbols of fertility and coupling. Possibly painting at Greenwich Palace, it's the view of the Queen that a visiting ambassador would have seen on arriving at the palace. Opposite is Robert Dudley, resplendent in red, in a portrait that is strikingly similar to one of Erik XIV of Sweden by Steven van der Meulen."

"Someone else in the exhibition with a grim story to tell is a private travelling portrait of John Stubbs. Unfortunately for him, he angered the Queen when he published a pamphlet criticising her proposed marriage to Francis, Duke of Anjou. Arguing that she was too old to bear children and should rema"

A free exhibition in central London presents rarely seen portraits connected to Queen Elizabeth I’s court. The display includes the earliest surviving life-size, full-length portrait of the Queen, shown in a room with favourites and courtiers. Familiar names such as Walsingham, Essex, Cecil, Burley, and Robert Dudley surround four rare portraits of Elizabeth. One portrait from the earliest days of her reign appears modest and unassuming, with a style that is almost masculine and lacks typical regal trappings. Another portrait dominates the room in Tudor red and includes background codes suggesting a marriage proposal. Robert Dudley appears in a red portrait similar to a Swedish king’s image, and John Stubbs is represented through a travelling portrait tied to his pamphlet criticism of her proposed marriage.

Read at ianVisits