Portrait of King Edward VI

1553 · Private collection

portrait

Guillaume Scrots, as court painter to Henry VIII's son and successor, Edward VI, was responsible for the design of the most important official portrait of Edward as king, of which the present painting is one of the rare extant examples. This full length portrait of Edward depicts the young king at about the age of fifteen and not long before his untimely death from consumption in 1553. Edward VI (1537-1553) was the only son of King Henry VIII, by his third wife, Jane Seymour, and just nine years old when he succeeded to the throne.

About the Artist

Guillaume Scrots

Flemish painter, active in England. In 1537 he was appointed court painter to Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, but no work done for her has yet been identified. By autumn 1545 he had arrived in England to enter the service of Henry VIII as King's Painter, at the extraordinarily high salary of £62 10s a year - about twice what his predecessor Hans Holbein the Younger had received. Scrots, whose work reflected the grand formality of Habsburg portraiture, went on to produce highly fashionable portraits at the English court. Following Henry VIII's s death in 1547, Scrots was retained as court painter to Henry's son and successor, Edward VI.

View all works →