Portrait Of Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) C.1650; Attributed To Henry Stone (1616-1653)

This is an item with an interesting provenance from one of England’s finest stately homes with a long and intriguing history. This work formed part of a collection of family pictures and heirlooms of the Brocket Baronets, family seat Brocket Hall.The portrait used to hand in Brocket Hall's library - see photo. This elegant portrait of the Queen portrays her serenely composed, standing half-length by her crown which is resting on a draped curtain, and her right hand caressing a rose on a table, an emblem of the pleasures of pain and love, beauty, and mortality. It is a majestic image, one that aptly illustrates the subject’s royalty and symbolically represents her desirable attributes of modesty and fertility. Ultimately the artist has created an image which presents the Queen as she would have wished to be perceived. The pose and the arrangement are simple yet the composition is one of the most subtlety beautiful, tenderly graceful, and exquisite. Our painting is a contemporary version, probably painted circa 1650. It derives from a painting by Van Dyke of the Queen which is thought to be the first single portrait of her painted on his arrival in England in 1632. It is one of Antony Van Dyke’s most important and beautiful images of the Queen. A warrant dated 8 Aug 1632 for payments to him by the Crown included £20 for a portrait of “our royall consort”. The portrait was the one that King Charles I liked best for he had it hung in his bedchamber at Whitehall. Many contemporary versions were painted, ours is unique in that the crown is positioned in the right hand margin, on luxurious golden drapery (inspired directly from Van Dyke’s portrait of the Queen with Jeffrey Hudson painted 1633, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC). Van Dyke invented this type of “careless romantic” clothing for his female sitters in England; the style was popular in portraits of court ladies. The silk contains hardly visible decorative cuts (pinks) on the fabric. Throughout the 1630s there was no real change to this iconic image. Had Van Dyke left but this one image of the Queen she would live for us the embodiment of grace, happiness, and queenly dignity. A feature of this portrait is its exquisite 17th century carved and gilded auricular frame. The design, having originated in Italy, was a popular style particularly for Van Dyke’s paintings and frame makers working in London embraced this fashion with enthusiasm, using it for pictures from the 1630s to the 1680s. Examples can be found in Ham House, Richmond, and in the National Portrait Gallery, London. This frame, containing an inscription of the sitter and artist, is carved by hand and retains the original gilding; they are very sought after objects by museums and collectors and in this size, do not appear often for sale. Henry Stone (1616-1653) was an English painter and an excellent copyist of the works of Van Dyck. He was the eldest son of notable sculptor and architect Nicholas Stone (1586/7-1647). Henry went to Holland, where he was apprenticed to his uncle, the painter Thomas de Keyser. He later went on a tour of the continent with his brother Nicholas Jr. visiting France, and Italy to study art, and returned circa 1642. After his father's death he and his youngest brother John carried on their father's business of masonry and statuary in London Stone was, however, chiefly known as a portrait painter, and was an excellent copyist of the works of Van Dyck and the Italian Masters (and his apprentice, Henry Paert, was also a good copyist and exerted this on most of the historic pieces of the royal collection). He also published a short work on painting, called "The Third Part of the Art of Painting". Several distinctive portraits painted by him survive. He died and was buried in London. Provenance: Brocket Hall, the ancient seat of the Brocket Baronets, and thence by descent to Charles Ronald George Nall-Cain, 3rd Baron Brocket (b.1952). Lord Brocket in Dec 1954 sold a “Portrait of Charles I in garter robes wearing the chain and jewel of The Order of the Garter, Henry Stone” - this may be the companion to our portrait Brocket hall - Two manor houses previously stood on the site, the first dated from 1239 was owned by Simon Fitz Ade, whose daughter married Sir Thomas Brocket, one of Hertfordshire’s leading families. In 1440 the house was rebuilt. During the 16th century, Sir John Brocket provided a haven for the young Princess Elizabeth as respite from the confinement under which her sister, Queen Mary I, had placed her at nearby Hatfield House. 25-year-old Elizabeth was reportedly reading a book under the shelter of her favourite oak tree at Brocket Hall when news reached her in November 1558 that Mary had died and she was now Queen of England. In around 1746 the house was sold to Sir Matthew Lamb, a Member of Parliament. His son was ennobled as the first Lord Melbourne as a reward for his generosity in allowing the Prince Regent (later King George IV) to conduct an affair with his wife during frequent visits to Brocket Hall. Other benefits of this dalliance included the laying out of a racecourse on the land surrounding Brocket Hall (the Prince Regent was an aficionado of the ‘sport of kings’) and the presentation of a near-priceless portrait of the future monarch, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The next owner was Peniston’s son William, the second Viscount Melbourne. In 1805, William had married Caroline Ponsonby, an earl’s daughter who is better known to posterity as the infamous Lady Caroline Lamb. She introduced the Waltz to England in the ballroom at Brocket Hall, but she also scandalised society by conducting a wild and tempestuous relationship with Lord Byron. She died in January 1828 and it is rumoured that her ghost still occupies the building to this day. In 1830, William was named Home Secretary and he installed a state banqueting table at Brocket Hall in 1832 that to this date remains the second longest in Britain. William became Prime Minister in July 1834 and he formed a close relationship with the young Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837 and was subsequently a regular visitor to Brocket Hall. On William’s death in 1848, the house passed to his sister, Emily, who had married his Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, in 1839. Palmerston also became Prime Minister, governing for nine years in total during the decade from 1855-65 and dying at Brocket Hall. In 1923, the estate and many of the contents was purchased by Sir Charles Nall-Cain, a descended from a King of Ulster, and he became Lord Brocket. His son Ronald married Angela Pennyman in 1927 – David Bowes Lyon, brother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (married to George VI) was best man – and became the second Lord Brocket upon his father’s death in 1935. The third Lord Brocket, Charles Nall-Cain, inherited the title at the age of 15 from his grandfather in 1967, his father having died six years earlier. This was a period of fierce religious struggle in England although patronage and encouragements of the arts thrived and this period was arguably one of the most important in the historical development of the arts in England, to which this portrait testifies. Measurements: Height 147cm, Width 122cm, Depth 13cm framed (Height 48”, Width 48”, Depth 5” framed)