Prince Frederick Henry, Crown Prince Palatine (1614–1629)
studio of Gerrit van Honthorst (Utrecht 1590 – Utrecht 1656)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1628 - 1629
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
737 x 584 mm (29 x 23 in)
Order this imageCollection
Ashdown House, Oxfordshire
NT 493065
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Prince Frederick Henry, Crown Prince Palatine (1614–1629), studio of Gerrit van Honthorst (Utrecht 1590 – Utrecht 1656). As a youth, head-and-shoulders portrait to right, with long black hair, wearing a tunic with gold and black epaulettes, a scarlet cloak fastened with a medallion at his right sholder. Frederick Henry, Prince Palatine (1614-1629), eldest son of Elizabeth of Bohemia (1596-1662) 'The Winter Queen', daughter of James I and Anne of Denmark and Frederick Henry of Wittelsbach, Elector Palatine of the Rhine and Frederick V, King of Bohemia (1596-1632). In 1629, Prince Frederick Henry accompanied his father to visit some ships, anchored in the Zuyder Zee, which had just returned laden with captured Spanish treasure – his mother was entitled to a share in the spoils. They set off in a hired boat but during the trip darkness fell and with it came a thick fog and heavy frost. A large cargo vessel collided with their boat, which overturned, the King was rescued but they failed to find the Prince till the morning when his body was discovered entangled in the rigging of the hired boat and frozen to the mast. He left his brother Charles Louis as heir to the Palatinate.
Provenance
Combe Abbey, 1866, no. 195; Acquired at the auction of the Craven Collection at Sotheby's in 1968. Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Ashdown House, 1968.
Credit line
Ashdown House, The Craven Collection (acquired by HM Treasury and transferred to the National Trust in 1968)
Makers and roles
studio of Gerrit van Honthorst (Utrecht 1590 – Utrecht 1656), artist