Portrait of Henry VIII

Hans Holbein the Younger's 1537 portrait of Henry VIII — broad-shouldered in a gold-embroidered doublet and fur robe, feet planted square to the viewer — produced the single most recognisable image of Tudor kingship. Holbein's original full-length fresco for the Privy Chamber at Whitehall was destroyed by fire in 1698, but a number of autograph and workshop versions survive. The small panel at Madrid's Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza is considered by many specialists to be among the most likely to have come from Holbein's own hand.

Exhibition Venue

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Madrid, Spain