Henrietta Maria
Medium
Etching and engraving
Dimensions
Image: 3 7/8 in. × 3 in. (9.8 × 7.6 cm) Sheet: 4 15/16 × 3 5/8 in. (12.5 × 9.2 cm) (inlaid to the following) Sheet: 11 1/8 × 7 3/8 in. (28.3 × 18.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917
Accession Number
17.3.3118
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate etching and engraving by Wenceslaus Hollar Henrietta Maria, the spirited Queen consort of England, created after 1641. Hollar, a masterful Bohemian printmaker who fled religious strife to work in England, was renowned for his intricate reproductive prints that brought the elite to life for wider audiences. Measuring just under 4 inches tall, this intimate portrait exemplifies his skill in rendering fine details like lace collars and expressive features on a small scale. Dated amid the English Civil War, the image holds poignant historical weight. Henrietta Maria, a French Cathol...
About the Artist
Wenceslaus Hollar|Henrietta Maria, Queen of England · 1607–1677
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) was a prolific Bohemian etcher who became one of the most accomplished printmakers of the seventeenth century. Born in Prague, he trained under Matthäus Merian in Frankfurt before entering the service of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, in 1636. Hollar spent most of his career in England, where he produced approximately 2,740 etchings documenting an extraordinary range...