This important dynastic portrait of Henry VIII and his family shows the king seated in the centre beneath a canopy of state flanked by his third wife, Jane Seymour and Prince Edward, later Edward VI. On the left is Princess Mary, later Mary I, the king’s daughter by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and on the right Princess Elizabeth, later Elizabeth I, his daughter by his second wife, Anne Boleyn. The view through the arches is of the Great Garden at Whitehall Palace. The heraldic King’s Beasts, carved in wood with gilt horns and set on columns, are prominently displayed amidst the flower beds, which are demarked by wooden fencing and painted in the Tudor colours of white and green. Through the archway on the left can be seen part of Whitehall Palace and the Westminster Clockhouse, balanced by a view through the archway on the right of the north transept of Westminster Abbey and a single turret of Henry VIII’s Great Close Tennis Court. The two figures in the archways are members of the Royal Household, that on the right being the king’s jester, Will Somers. Although the artist is unknown, the influence of Holbein is very strong, not only in the portraiture, but also in the classicising style of the architecture and the intricacy of the decorative motifs, so liberally highlighted in gold.

Provenance Probably painted for Henry VIII and first displayed in the Presence Chamber at Whitehall Palace.