Hans Holbein the Younger's 1536-37 portrait of Henry VIII, painted as part of a dynastic mural for the Palace of Whitehall showing the King beside his father Henry VII, his wife Jane Seymour and his mother Elizabeth of York. Henry stands with legs spread and arms braced, in the pose of a wrestler, dressed in gold-worked, jewelled costume, an image designed to project youthful power rather than record his true appearance; he was in his forties and recently injured in a jousting accident when it was painted. The original mural was destroyed in the 1698 Whitehall Palace fire and survives only through copies, most completely Remigius van Leemput's 1667 copy.
Facts
Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightSourced to the subject's own accountThis composition, especially Henry's frontal stance and face, became the single most copied and adapted image of the king, reproduced and reworked so often in later paintings, prints and decorative art that it standardized how Henry VIII would be pictured for centuries, far outlasting the burned original mural itself. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Depicts
The mural's sole royal subject, its best known and most reproduced image of Henry VIII.
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