How you can use this image

This image is available to be shared and re-used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence (CC BY-NC-SA).

This image can be reproduced in any way but your use of it cannot be for any kind of commercial purpose. Any work you create using this image must also be licensed under this same licence.

Wherever you reproduce the image or an altered version of it, you must attribute the original creators (acknowledge the original artist(s), the person/organisation that took the photograph of the work) and any other stated rights holders.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find more images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Download

More information

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This painting was originally painted as a portrait of an unknown high ranking Netherlandish sitter. Conservation research has established areas of overpainting that are consistent with the painting being adapted to the likeness of what – in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century – was considered to be Mary Queen of Scots. The portrait that this work is emulating is a miniature portrait by Isaac Oliver which was formerly said to have been a likeness of the Scottish Queen. The Oliver portrait is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 420063) and was acquired by Frederick Prince of Wales from the antiquarian collector Dr Richard Mead as a portrait of the Queen. It had, by that date, been engraved by both George Vertue and Jacob Houbraken as being of Mary Queen of Scots and so the likeness was well known and the identification was given as that of the Queen until the early twentieth century.