Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1640-1660)
Jan Boeckhorst (1605 - 1668)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1658 - 1660
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1180 x 975 mm
Order this imageCollection
Basildon Park, Berkshire
NT 266426
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Henry Duke of Gloucester (1639-60) by Jan Boeckhorst (1604/5 - 1668), previously catalogued as Willem Wissing (c.1656-87). A three-quarter-length portrait in an interior setting of the Duke in ceremonial armour, holding a staff in his right hand. The Duke looks over his right shoulder at the viewer. Born at Oatlands Palace, Surrey 8 July 1640, styled Duke of Gloucester from birth, created Duke of Gloucester and Earl of Cambridge in 1659. Died at Whitehall Palace in 1660, buried in Westminster Abbey. Third and youngest son of King Charles I and Henrietta Maria. In the custody of the Duke of Northumberland at Sion House (vide the Lely at Petworth) until the escape of his brother, James, Duke of York; then transferred to that of the Countess of Leicester at Penshurst; from 1650 held at Carisbrooke Castle, until the end of 1652, when permitted to go abroad. He joined his mother in Paris, until 1654, when her attempts to persuade him to become a Catholic prompted Charles II to send for Henry to be with him, first at Cologne, and from 1656 at Bruges. He entered the English regiment of foot in the Spanish army in the Netherlands (hence his armour), and acquitted himself bravely alongside his brother James at the Battle of Dunkirk (1658). Accompanied Charles back to England at the Restoration in 1660, but died in September of smallpox. Bishop Burnet (1833 edn. I. 308) says: "He was active, and loved business ... and had an insinuating temper", and that Charles II "was never in his whole life seen so much troubled" as at his death.
Makers and roles
Jan Boeckhorst (1605 - 1668), artist Willem Wissing (Amsterdam 1656 - Burghley House 1687), artist