The last surviving contemporary portrait of Catherine de’ Medici, queen consort and wife of king Henry II of France, will return to its former home in London. The rarely seen painting, which dates to 1561 and shows Catherine with four of her children, will go on view at Strawberry Hill House in the British capital, where it once hung with other works in the storied collection of the 18th-century writer and politician Horace Walpole.
By the date of the painting she was effectively the monarch, as regent for her son Charles—the boy king encircled by her arm—after the death of her husband Henry II of France. Also depicted are his siblings the future King Henry III, Duke of Anjou; Marguerite de Valois, who would become Queen of Navarre; and François-Hercule, Duke of Anjou and Alençon. The children would be the last of the Valois dynasty, succeeded by the Bourbons in 1589.
The portrait was among works from Walpole’s holdings that were dispersed in an 1842 auction. But now, the paintinh has been put under public ownership as part of the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The arrangement enables families to pay inheritance taxes, in whole or in part, by transferring “important works of art and heritage objects” to the public domain.
The work, attributed to the workshop of French court painter Francois Clouet, will go on permanent display in Strawberry Hill House when it reopens on May 17. Located in Twickenham, the gothic revival house is was opened to the public as a museum in 2010, following a $14-million restoration effort.
The painting has only been on public display on a handful of occasions since Walpole’s death, but will now be on permanent view in the long gallery which was once filled with Walpole’s Paintings.
