Historian sees long-lost portrait of Henry VIII in photograph taken at Warwick Shire Hall

An expert has spotted a missing portrait of Henry VIII in a photograph taken at Warwick Shire Hall. Dr. Adam Busiakiewicz identified it as a lost work that was once part of a famous set of 22 portraits.

Dr. Busiakiewicz spotted the painting from the corner of a room in a photo posted on social media site X. He noted the arched top and distinctive frame identical to other surviving examples.

The portrait is part of a set that was commissioned in the 1590s by tapestry maker Ralph Sheldon. It was originally hung at Weston House, his Warwickshire home, but only a handful of paintings in the group survive.

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Dr. Busiakiewicz wrote in a blog post about the re-identification of the portrait: “It seems that strange discoveries can happen at any time. This is especially the case when your eyes are specifically drawn to the gilded frames that appear in the corners of photographs in people’s homes. on social networks.

“It happened today while speeding through ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) that I happened to see a portrait of Henry VIII with a distinctive arched top in a photo of a room in Warwick Shire Hall just posted by the Lord Lieutenant. from Warwickshire, Tim Cox.”

He said other surviving examples of the portrait set are in the National Portrait Gallery, London, Eton College and Knebworth House. However, scholars have always considered Sheldon’s portrait of Henry VIII to be missing.

The composition of King Henry, holding a sword and wearing a plumed hat, is shown in an engraving of the Long Gallery at Weston Hall, made in a later engraving by the antiquarian Henry Shaw. Sheldon’s famous set of paintings was later dispersed at auction, and most remain unidentified to this day.

Research is ongoing to establish how the portrait came to hang at Warwick Shire Hall. Although Warwickshire County Council only acquired the work in 1951, Henry VIII’s links with the town go much deeper.

Research undertaken by Warwick historian Aaron Manning has uncovered details of a previously unknown state visit by Henry VIII to Warwick in the first week of September 1511. The letters preserved in the National Archives were written by the king during a brief stay at the Castle Warwick, although the address was deemed unimportant.

New online transcriptions of the Tudor Chamber Books have shed more light on Henry’s forgotten visit, such as the names of his companions, the offerings he made to St Mary’s Church and details of his activities in the region.

Dr Busiakiewicz, who completed his PhD in art history at Warwick University and is also a consultant to Sotheby’s auction house, said: “This portrait of Henry VIII is an outstanding Tudor painting of one of the most recognized kings of England. Since the present. the owners of Warwick Castle sold a fabulous portrait of Henry VIII from the castle in 2015. Warwick needed an important image of this king to stand in his place.

“This stunning portrait, commissioned by Ralph Sheldon over four hundred years ago and now in the Warwick Shire Hall collection, could be that painting.”

Aaron Manning, who is also interpretation manager for Historic Royal Palaces, said: “He might be the most recognizable English king, but there are only so many portraits of Henry VIII that were painted during the Tudor period. It is wonderful that a lost portrait from the 1500s, particularly one commissioned and displayed in a Warwickshire house, has been rediscovered a truly important addition to the town’s already rich history.”

Dr. Busiakiewicz’s full blog post about the portrait and its history can be read HERE.

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