Queen Henrietta Maria (1609-1669)  1638

Queen Henrietta Maria had been so delighted with the sculptor Bernini’s bust of her husband, Charles I, that she was determined to have a companion bust. Van Dyck painted at least two preparatory portraits (this and RCIN 400158, one profile and one frontal) in August 1638, but it was not until June 1639 that the Queen wrote to Bernini of her desire to have a bust of hersel...