Physical description
A double portrait of King Charles I of England, wearing the blue ribbon of the Order of the Garter, and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria who proffers a laurel wreath and holds an olive branch. On the table behind the King lay his crown, sceptre and orb. An opening in the curtain behind the couple reveals a landscape beyond.
Date
17th century (painted)
Artist/maker
Coques, Gonzales, born 1614 - died 1684 (attributed to, painter (artist))
Materials and Techniques
Oil on oak panel
Dimensions
Height: 45.5 cm estimate, Width: 78.5 cm estimate
Object history note
Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, 1868
'Chauncy Hare Townshend (1798-1868) was born into a wealthy family, only son of Henry Hare Townsend of Busbridge Hall, Godalming, Surrey. Educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA 1821). Succeeded to the family estates 1827, when he added 'h' to the Townsend name. He had taken holy orders, but while he always referred to himself as 'Rev.' on the title pages of his books, he never practised his vocation... . Very much a dilettante in the eighteenth-century sense, he moved in the highest social and literary circles; a great friend of Charles Dickens (he was the dedicatee of Great Expectations) with whom he shared a fascination of mesmerism... Bulwer Lytton described his life's 'Beau-deal of happiness' as 'elegant rest, travel, lots of money - and he is always ill and melancholy'. Of the many watercolours and British and continental oil paintings he bequeathed to the V&A, the majority are landscapes. He is the first identifiable British collector of early photographs apart from the Prince Consort, particularly landscape photography, and also collected gems and geological specimens.'
Ref : Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860. Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990. p.xix.
Historical significance: This is a reduced copy after the original (now in the collection of the Archiepiscopal Castle and Gardens, Kromeríž, Czech Republic), painted in 1632 by Anthony van Dyck, to sit above the chimney in the drawing room in Somerset House, London. King Charles I had granted Somerset House to the Queen in 1626 as part of her jointure; and soon after an elaborate program of redecoration began. Daniel Mytens [Mitjens] was first commissioned to paint a double portrait for the cabinet room but his work was deemed unsatisfactory. Van Dyck was then engaged and his version must have pleased for its emphasis on the union of the King (his sovereignty made plain by the regalia behind him) and the Queen, symbolized by the exchange to a garland of laurel, presented by the Queen to her husband and partly in allusion to her father’s (Henry IV) martial fame. The olive branch held in her left hand may also refer to Charles’ peace-loving father James I. There is a miniature copy of the queen’s head in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam which is signed and dated 1632 and a copy in miniature by John Hoskins of the whole picture, both of which were painted for the King.
There are several more copies both of the entire composition and of single figures in various collections and the work was also engraved by Van Voerst in 1634.
Historical context note
This painting is in the tradition of double portraits of wedded couples, often symbolising their union or the union of their two families.
Descriptive line
Oil painting on oak panel, King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria. 17th century. Attributed to Gonzales Coques.
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Millar, Oliver, 'Some Painters for Charles I' Burlington Magazine CIV (1962), p.326 ff.
Hashagen, Joanna and Santina M. Levey, Fine and Fashionable. Lace from the Blackbourne Collection County Durham : Bowes Museum, 2006. 88 p. : ill. (some col.). ISBN: 0954818245.
Exhibition catalogue.
Kauffmann, C.M., Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, I. Before 1800, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, p. 72-73, cat. no. 70
The following is the full text of the entry:
"Gonzales COQUES (1614-84)
Netherlandish (Antwerp) School
Born in Antwerp, the son of Pieter Willemsen Cock, he changed his name to give it a Spanish appearance. From 1640 he became an increasingly popular portrait artist and worked for Charles I (in the 1640s), for the Stadhouder Leopold Wilhelm, for Don John of Austria and, especially, for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange. He was Dean of the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp in 1665-66 and 1680-81, and was nicknamed the 'small Van Dyck'.
Ascribed to Gonzales COQUES
70
CHARLES I AND HENRIETTA MARIA,
WITH A LAUREL WREATH
Oak panel
18 X 31 (45.5 X 78.5)
Townshend Bequest
1342-1869
This is a reduced copy of Van Dyck's double portrait of 1632, which in turn was derived from a composition of Daniel Mytens (Millar, 1962, figs. 3 and 6). The Van Dyck original has usually been considered to be the version belonging to the Duke of Grafton (80 X 100 cm.; G. Glück, Van Dyck,K d. K, 1931, p. 374, repr., 559; exh. Kings and Queens,R. A., 1953, no. 133), but Oliver Millar has recently suggested that it is more likely to be the version in the Archiepiscopal Gallery at Kremsier in Czechoslovakia (113.5 X 163 cm; Millar, 1962, p. 329, fig. 7).
The Van Dyck portrait was engraved by Robert van Voerst in 1634.
John Hoskins' miniature of Henrietta Maria in the Rijksmuseum, no. 2842, dated 1632, is based on the Van Dyck double portrait and there is also a Hoskins miniature of the whole composition in the Duke of Northumberland's collection at Alnwick (J. J. Foster in Connoisseur,lxxiii 1925, p. 215 f., repr.). There is a full size copy at Knole.
When Waagen saw 1342-1869 in the Rev. C. H. Townshend's drawingroom c. 1854-56 he wrote that 'the colouring is clear, the execution soft and delicate.' It was he who attributed it to Coques. This is a plausible attribution, but, from the nature of the work as a copy, not one that is susceptible of proof. It is certainly a 17th century work of good quality.
Condition.Panel split horizontally.
Prov.The Rev. C. H. Townshend, before 1856; bequeathed to the Museum in 1868.
Lit.Waagen, Supplement,1857, p. 179. For the composition, see O. Millar, 'Some painters for Charles l' in Burl. Mag.,civ, 1962, p. 326 ff."
Susan J. Barnes et al. Van Dyck: a complete catalogue of the paintings. New Haven ; London : Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press, 2004.
For discussion of the van Dyck original see pp. 460-462, no. IV.46
Liskens-Pruss, Marion. Gonzalez Coques (1614-1684) : der kleine Van Dyck. Turnhout: Brepols , 2007.
For a general catalogue on Coques
Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an account of more than forty collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss, etc, London, 1857, p.179.
The following is the full text of the catalogue entry:
"GONZALES COQUES- To this master I am inclined to attribute the portraits of Charles I. and Queen Henrietta Maria, who is handing him a wreath of laurel. The figures are obviously taken from portraits by Vandyck, and are about half the size of life; the colouring is clear, the execution soft and delicate.
Gustav Waagen"
Exhibition History
Fine & Fashionable (The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle 09/09/2006-29/04/2007)
Materials
Oak; Oil colour
Techniques
Oil painting
Subjects depicted
Landscapes (representations); Laurel (foliage); Charles I (King of England); Olive branch; Wreaths (costume accessories); Sceptres; Royal crown; Orbs; Henrietta Maria
Categories
Portraits; Royalty; Paintings
Collection code
PDP
