Henry VI, King of England and France
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Accession Number
S/NPG.77.43.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Henry VI, King of England France*, a striking 1618 engraving by Renold Elstrackc. 1570–c. 1625), an accomplished English printmaker known for his detailed portraiture during the Jacobean era. Crafted over a century and a half after Henry VI's death in 1471, this posthumous portrait captures the Lancastrian monarch in regal splendor, adorned with a fur-trimmed cape, crown, scepter, and. Symbols like the fleur-de-lis—evoking France's royal heritage—and a cross underscore his dual claim to the English and French thrones, a bold assertion amid the lingering memory of the Hundred Years' War...