LONDON (AP) – A painting that goes on public display tomorrow could be the only portrait of England’s shortest-reigning queen, Lady Jane Grey, painted during her lifetime, according to the conservation group English Heritage.
It said there is “compelling” evidence to suggest that the portrait, on loan from a private collection, shows Jane, who was no older than 17 when she became queen for just nine days in the summer of 1553.
One of England’s most tragic regal figures, she was executed at the Tower of London in 1554. Jane was a devout Protestant at a time of religious upheaval, the ultimate innocent victim of the chicanery of the Tudor court in the chaotic aftermath of Henry VIII’s reign.
She is perhaps best-known from Paul Delaroche’s painting, “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey,” which hangs in the National Gallery in central London. Jane, who may have been as young as 16, is shown blindfolded as an executioner with an axe waits to behead her.
But that painting, like the few others that purport to show Jane, all date from after her death.
Now, English Heritage says a Tudor-era work could be a “live” painting of Jane. The portrait, along with six others, will hang at Wrest Park, a country estate west of London managed by English Heritage, and which incidentally is the location of many scenes of Netflix’s period drama Bridgerton.
The charity worked with the Courtauld Institute of Art and scientist Ian Tyers, who specialises in dendrochronology, or the dating of tree rings. It said there is enough evidence to raise the question: “Could this mysterious portrait be Lady Jane Grey?”
Among the evidence presented, English Heritage said the tree-dating points to the wooden panel having been constructed between 1539 and around 1571 – Jane is believed to have been born in 1536 or 1537 and was executed in early 1554. It also said the back of the panel displays a merchant or cargo mark, identical to one used on a royal portrait of King Edward VI, who, in an ultimately tragic turn, anointed his first cousin once removed as his successor.
