 |
| King Henry VIII |
One afternoon in London we popped into the National Portrait Gallery, a wing of London’s National Gallery museum (housing–do we need to say?–portraits). It’s filled with portraits of all manner of notable figures in British history, including one of William Shakespeare that you’ve likely seen before but, upon close-up inspection, you realize he’s wearing an earring. A notable absence from the gallery when we visited is a portrait, any portrait, of Bess of Hardwick, a figure we–Lori in particular–have been interested in since we visited her Chatsworth House a few weeks ago.
 |
| Shakespeare with Earring |
But most visitors go to the National Portrait Gallery to see British monarchs. There’s the iconic, life-size portrait of Henry VIII by (astonishingly) an unknown artist shown at the top of this blog. There’s also the over-sized but not quite life-sized portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII’s daughter with Anne Boleyn, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (son of the “Older” I assume).
 |
| Queen Elizabeth I |
But we particularly liked the small, unassuming portrait of Henry VIII’s father, King Henry VII by an unknown Dutch artist. In it, Henry VII appears to be peeking in the arched window made by the frame of the portrait, his hands resting on the sill. He wears a playful smirk and glances at you out of the corners of his eyes. It’s quite the different image from his bombastic son.
 |
| King Henry VII |
