Strawberry Hill ID: sh-000468
c.1532-33
Horenbout, Lucas (South Netherlandish painter, c. 1490-1544, active in England)
Miniature
Watercolour on vellum set in gold frame
4.2 cm [diameter]
Inscriptions: Engraved on 19h century cartouche: KATHARINE OF ARRAGON
Trustees of the Ninth Duke of Buccleuch’s Chattels Trust
Strawberry Hill History
Location: Tribune [Cabinet]
1774 Description: Within the cabinet of enamels and miniatures:…On the insides of the doors:…Catharine of Arragon, first wife of Henry 8th. an admirable original; by Holbein. These three were bought at the auction of lady Isabella Scott. (84)
1784 Description: Text same as 1774 Description (60)
Sale Text: A splendid original miniature Portrait of Catherine of Arragon, Queen of Henry VIII., by Holbein, and a very fine specimen of this master. From the collection of the Lady Isabella Scott, daughter of the Duchess of Monmouth.
Object History
Provenance: Charles II; presented to his illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth (according to Horace Walpole); his daughter, Lady Isabella Scott; at her sale purchased by Horace Walpole, by 1774 (as Katharine of Arragon by Holbein); 1842, Strawberry Hill Sale, day 14, lot 65, bt. William Blamire, Esq., £50.8.0 (as Katherine of Aragon by Holbein); 1863, 9 November his sale, London, Christie’s, lot 137; purchased by Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and 7th Duke of Queensberry; by family descent.
Exhibition History: South Kensington Museum, “Special Exhibitions of Portrait Miniatures,” 1865, no. 1590 (as Katharine of Arragon); Royal Academy of Arts, “Old Masters,” 1879, Case F, no. 5.
"Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill." Orleans House Gallery. Twickenham, England. 9/20/1980-12/7/1980. No.134.
[Buccleuch, Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Edinburgh, Scotland. 1996.]
"Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill," Yale Center for British Art, 15 October 2009 - 3 January 2010; Victoria and Albert Museum, 5 March 2010 - 4 July 2010, cat. no. 174.
Bibliography: J.G. Nichols, “Remarks upon Holbein’s Portraits of the Royal Family of England, and more particularly upon the several Portraits of the Queen’s of Henry the Eighth,” Archaeologia 40 (1866): 71-80.
A. McKay, Catalogue of the Miniatures in Montagu House belonging to the Duke of Buccleuch, 2nd edition (London, 1899 [1st edn., 1896]), 21.
H.A. Kennedy, Early English Miniatures in the Collection of the Duke of Buccleuch (London: The Studio Ltd, 1917), 3-4, 29, pl. 7.
OHG 134
Roy Strong, The English Renaissance Miniature (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1983), 189, nos. 15-16.
Roy Strong and V.G. Murrell, Artists of the Tudor Court (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983), 39-40.
Stephen Lloyd, Portrait Miniatures from the Collection of the Duke of Bucceluch (Edinburgh: The Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland, 1996), 32-3, cat. 5, plate 5.
