Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (1596-1662) Winter Queen

Location

Country: Czech Republic
City: Prague
Place: British Embassy

Gerrit van Honthorst’s portrait of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, is one of a pair of companion portraits of Elizabeth and her husband, Frederick V (GAC 1263). Exiled in The Hague, after reigning in Bohemia from 1619–1620, the couple commissioned several portraits from the artist in the early 1630s. The brevity of their time in Prague earned them the titles of ‘Winter King and Queen’ their expulsion sparking the Thirty Years’ War across central Europe.

 

In both portraits the couple’s fashionable black courtly attire, contrast dramatically against a sumptuous red curtain and balustrade. The presence of the royal insignia in both portraits corresponds to the claim to the crown of Bohemia, which Frederick V never renounced throughout his long years of exile. After her husband’s death in 1632, Elizabeth remained in Holland for almost 30 years. Following the restoration  of her nephew Charles II to the English throne in 1660, she returned to England in 1661 and died in London in February the following year. Buried in Westminster Abbey, Elizabeth was long regarded a martyr to Protestantism.

Honthorst’s portraits of Frederick and Elizabeth were at Mote Park, near Maidstone, the seat of the Lords Romney, by 1795. That year, the author of ‘Historical Genealogy of the Royal House of Stuarts’ referred to them there, attributing the works to Cornelius Johnson and commenting: ‘his person is good; she, though not handsome, is far more so than either of her parents: their misfortunes seem depicted in their countenances.’

Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst trained under Abraham Bloemaert in Utrecht and was in Rome from c.1610-12. Here, Honthorst became particularly influenced by the work of Caravaggio and of his follower Manfredi. Honthorst also worked for Caravaggio’s former patron, the Marchese Giustiniani. After leaving Rome in 1620, he settled in Utrecht until 1628. He then made a brief visit to London, where he worked as a royal portraitist, painting an intimate portrait of Charles I (1628). From 1637 to 1652 Honthorst lived in a large mansion in The Hague, where his students included Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and her daughters. He painted several of Elizabeth’s family members. Honthorst occasionally produced work with his brother, Willem (1594-1666).

People

Queen of Bohemia Elizabeth (1596 - 1662)

Places

Subjects

royal portrait, winter, woman, 17th century costume, dress, bracelet, necklace, pearls, sceptre, crown, Queen, balustrade, terrace, table cloth, curtain, table (as Subject)

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Gerrit van Honthorst (1590 - 1656)

Title

Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (1596-1662) Winter Queen

Date

c.1630

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 208.50 cm, width: 145.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Christie's, 9 February 1951

Inscription

TOP OF BALUSTRADE (barely legible): QUEEN OF BOHEMIA, DAUGHTER TO KING JAMES / THE FIRST BR: G. Honthorst. BL: Elizabeth / Queen of Bohemia / B.1596 D.1662.

Provenance

Collection of Charles Marsham, Baron Romney (1744-1811; later 1st Earl of Romney) at Mote House (The Mote) in Kent by 1795; by descent to Charles Marsham, 4th Earl of Romney (1841-1905); by whom sold through Christie’s, London, on 9 June 1888 (Lot 358), bought in; collection of Romney; from whom purchased as part of the Mote Estate by Marcus Samuel (1853-1927; later 1st Viscount Bearsted) in 1895; by whom sold through Christie’s, London, 13 December 1929 (Lot 77, with GAC 1263); from which sale purchased by Gooden & Fox, London, for £210; collection of Sir Edward Oswald Every (c.1887-c.1950) of Egginton Hall, Derby, and Lennox Gardens, Chelsea; by whose executors sold through Christie’s, London, on 9 February 1951 (Lot 107; with GAC 1264); from which sale purchased by ‘Norway’, on behalf of the Ministry of Works

GAC number

1264