I LOVE Tudor history. Thanks Mom! So the part of the portrait gallery I was most looking forward to was the Tudor portion. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited for all of it, but the opportunity to see the original versions of these famous paintings I’ve seen all my life? Sign me up. The rest of the gallery was worthwhile perusing through till we got there, especially with all the school groups. There was a portrait that contained a naked woman, which naturally the children were giggling hysterically at. I noticed a little boy point it out to a little girl and couldn’t help but think about how when she’s my age she’s going to look back on this moment and realize just how young it starts. But we carried on, bobbing and weaving through British kiddos up the stairs to the Tudor portraits.
This room blew me away. When I say it has all of THEEEE Tudor portraits you know and love, I mean it. Plenty of Liz I, Henry VII, and most of his wives. The portrait I was most drawn to, however, was that of Anne Boleyn. She’s definitely my favorite of the six wives. There’s just something about her and her story that really sits with me. I feel the same about Catherine Howard. Funny how they’re both the ones who got beheaded.
You can tell that this portrait was painted before she became queen. While you can still tell she’s a woman of great privilege, she doesn’t come off like a queen. Most notably compared to a lot of the other Tudor women portraits, she wears a French hood on her hair rather than an English hood. This immediately shows us that she did spend most of her life in France and would be acquainted with the French style.
I’ve always thought she had a cheeky look in her eye in this portrait that really captures what we can glean about her personality. She’s not looking off into the distance, but directly at the viewer. When we view this in modern times, it’s almost like she’s gazing across history at us. Perhaps seeing us gives her all the knowledge of what happened after her death, and that’s why she’s smirking. Maybe she’s laughing at the irony of her death. Whatever it is, I found myself staring into her eyes when viewing the portrait. It was like talking to her. Now that’s one woman from history I’d invite to my dinner party.
Theatre in London U of A 