‘It is not known for certain whether a portrait of Lady Jane Grey was painted during her lifetime. This display will chart the expansion of Lady Jane Grey’s posthumous iconography in print, from the van der Passes’s influential engraving for Henry Holland’s Heroologia (1620) to prints after the sentimental history paintings that became popular in the nineteenth century. The display explores how these works promoted Lady Jane as a Protestant heroine and martyr.’
From ‘What’s On – Dec 2009-Jan 2010.
The Face of Lady Jane Grey
’If only you had seen her face, you would have been inspired by its nobility.’
Sir Thomas Chaloner, An Elegy for Lady Jane Grey, 1579.
‘No securely authenticated lifetime portrait of Lady Jane is known to exist. Yet the widespread fascination with her tragic story has created an enduring demand for her likeness. This display features prints produced after some of the many portraits that have been identified as Lady Jane, both through error and deceit.’
Copyright. National Portrait Gallery.
The ‘Streatham Portrait’ is on display at the entrance to Room 16.
The portraits on display can be viewed at the National Portrait Gallery website here.
Notes from the exhibition:
Lady Jane Grey nee Dudley by Van de Passe
This print is the most influential of Lady Jane Grey. It was produced for Henry Holland’s book of English Protestant heroes, Heroologia Anglica. Holland misleadingly claimed that all portraits in his book were based on authentic likenesses…This print is after a portrait of Catherine Parr.’
Lady Jane Dudley by Robert Cooper
‘This engraving is based on…a portrait belonging to the Earls of Stafford, who were descended from Lady Jane Grey’s relations.’
Called Lady Jane Dudley by Charles Picart
This engraving represents a transition between portraits purporting to be authentic representations of Lady Jane Grey and narrative pictures that re-enact scenes from her life in a consciously fictional manner.’
Lady Jane Grey’s reluctance to accept the Crown by Herbert Bourne, after Charles Robert Leslie
The success of Charles Leslie’s painting at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1827 heralded a period of phenomenal public interest in Lady Jane Grey.
Copyright. National Portrait Gallery.
