Elizabeth I, Queen of England

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Elizabeth I, Queen of England

Place of OriginEngland

Dateabout 1588

DimensionsH: 30 in. (76.2 cm); W: 25 in. (63.5 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1953.94

Not on View

Label TextResplendent with pearls, gold, jewels, lace, red wig, and ostrich-feather fan, England’s Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558–1603) is a dazzling and commanding figure in this portrait by an unknown artist. Elizabeth had only a few official portraits painted of her throughout her reign, which then served as the basis for the many copies and variations that were disseminated throughout her kingdom and beyond. This portrait is based on an official life-portrait done about the time of the stunning British naval defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, when Elizabeth was 54. Elizabeth is dressed in the most elaborate of costumes, the satin embroidered with flowers and plants—lilies, strawberries, primroses, carnations—associated with the Virgin Mary and thus emphasizing Elizabeth’s identity as Gloriana, the Virgin Queen. The inscription “by Mark Gerard” at the upper left was added about 1800 and is an erroneous attribution to the artist Marcus Geeraerdts (1566–1635).Published ReferencesBürger, W. (T. Thoré), Trésors d'art en Angleterre, Paris, 1865, p. 348.

Sketch Books of Sir George Scharf in the Archives of the National Portrait Gallery, 49, f. 12.

O'Donoghue, F., A Descriptive and Classified Catalogue of Portraits of Queen Elizabeth, London, 1894, pictures no. 50.

"A Portrait of the First Elizabeth," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 147, Sept. 1953, unpaginated, repr. on cover.

Strong, R., Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Oxford, 1963, p. 75, repr. p. 70.

"The People, Places and Things of Shakespeare's World," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Members' Bulletin, January 1964, repr.

Strong, R., Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, London, 1969, I, p. 111.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "European jeweled arts," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 13, no. 3, Autumn 1970, repr. p. 53.

Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 30-31, pl. 307.

Rumsey, Thomas R., Men and woman of the Renaissance and Reformation 1300-1600, Wellesley Hills, MA, 1981, p. 397, repr.

Levey, Santina M., Lace, a history, Leeds, 1983, repr. fig. 44.

Page, Jutta- Annette, "Glass as Jewels: An Uneasy Relationship," in Glasswear: Glass in Contemporary Jewelry, Stuttgart, Arnoldsche, 2007, p. 55, fig. 4, p. 57 (col.).

Lawson, Jane A., ed., The Elizabethan New Year's Gift Exchanges 1559-1603, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, repr., frontispiece.

Exhibition HistoryManchester (England), Catalogue of the Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, p. 114, no. 63.

San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Elizabethan and Drake Exhibit, June and July 1954.

Denver Art Museum, Clothes Make the Man, January 1956.

Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Detroit Institute of Arts, The World of Shakespeare, 1564-1616, 1964, no. 2, fig. 2.

New York, American Museum of Natural History; Chicago, The Field Museum; Atlanta, Fernbank Museum of Natural History; Houston Museum of Natural Science; Nashville, Tennessee State Museum; Toronto, Canada, Royal Ontario Museum; Milwaukee Public Museum, Pearls, 2001-2005. [no catalogue or checklist]

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada. 2004-05.

Toledo Museum of Art, Shakespeare's Characters: Playing the Part, September 2, 2016-January 8, 2017.