Portrait of Elizabeth I as a Princess

The rediscovery of this portrait is a major addition to the iconography of Elizabeth I. It also throws new light on the phenomenon of portrait commissioning in Tudor and Elizabethan England in the middle years of the 16th century. Until now, this picture was thought to be a late copy, owing to the addition of two feebly painted outer panels, and the masking of the face with mid 20th century overpaint. Indeed, it seems that by the early 20th century the picture had lost its very identity as an image of Elizabeth. Restoration and research by Philip Mould Ltd has allowed this picture to be appreciated once more. It is one of only two contemporary individual portraits of Elizabeth before she became Queen in 1558.

The Human Face of Henry VIII

At first sight this painting of King Henry VIII appeared to be an unpromising later derivative of Hans Holbein’s famous portrait of 1537. Conservation, however, resulted in an extraordinary transformation and the removal of the later autocratic mask has revealed a sweeter and more human likeness underneath. This earlier portrait shows a still-youthful King before the Reformation, marital disillusionment and political resistance had shaped the harsh, unbending tyrant familiar from Holbein’s formidable likeness. This important addition to the iconography of Henry’s earlier reign was produced by a native workshop in the early 1530s, and dates perhaps to the period when the King was courting Anne Boleyn.

The painting has been acquired by Hever Castle as an important addition to their collection of early Tudor portraits.

A Royal Van Dyck

Conservation revealed the distinctive crowned CR cipher of King Charles I’s collection on the reverse of this ethereal portrait by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599 – 1641). Lady Mary Villiers (1622 – 1685) was the daughter of the King’s favourite the Duke of Buckingham, and the previously-unknown mark proved that the King, who raised Buckingham’s children almost as his own after the Duke was murdered in 1628, had placed a portrait of Lady Mary in his collection. Lady Mary, later the Duchess of Lennox and Richmond, was known not only for her beauty but for her wit, and recent research has established that she was very probably the anonymous poetess at King Charles II’s court who published as ‘Ephelia.’

The Lost Tudor Prince

This jewel-like object, painted by a Flemish artist in around 1500, is the only known life portrait of Arthur Prince of Wales (1486 – 1502), the short-lived heir of his father King Henry VII. Mistaken for a portrait of the Prince’s brother Henry VIII it had lapsed by the eighteenth century into an obscurity equalled by its sitter, and passed from the Royal Collection into private hands. Reidentified and restored it is a precious example of English royal portraiture on the brink of the Renaissance, and a unique likeness of the boy who was born to be King Arthur. It was recently on loan to the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Re-discovered Portrait of King William

This martial portrait of the soldier-king William III (1650 – 1702) now hangs in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, where it is Scotland’s most authoritative public representation of William of Orange. This painting was long thought to be a copy after a lost original by Sir Godfrey Kneller, but it became apparent from the superlative handling of this example that it was the prime portrait, and an appropriate addition to the collection of the country that dubbed him ‘King Billy.’

Gainsborough's Missing Sister

Early works by artists such as Thomas Gainsborough (1727 – 1788) are rare and illuminating items, and are prized accordingly. The boy on the right of this composition had been attributed to several painters, including William Hogarth, until he was acquired in 1984 by Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury as a very early portrait by Gainsborough painted when he was only seventeen years old. Philip Mould identified the reduced and separated portrait of his sister when it appeared at sale seven years later, enabling the two to be reunited, in a manner that is not only psychologically satisfying, but establishes this portrait of c.1744 as Gainsborough’s earliest-known large-scale work.

Charles II rises from the Ashes

In the mid-1670s King Charles II engaged Antonio Verrio to produce a series of great ceiling paintings for the north range at Windsor Castle to commemorate the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The extravagant alterations made by Sir Jeffrey Wyattville in 1824 on the instructions of King George IV required their destruction, and all but a handful of fragments saved by the architect were thought to be lost. This sardonic likeness of King Charles II in laurel garland and Garter Robes was recognised by Philip Mould when it emerged at sale in Vienna and has now been returned to the Royal Collection. It formed the focal point of the ceiling in the King’s Presence Chamber, which was painted with a scene of Mercury showing a portrait of king Charles II to the four Continents.

FRANCIS HAYMAN (1708 - 1776), Self Portrait Rejoined

Francis Hayman was one of the progenitors of a new English school of art in the mid-eighteenth century. The painting on the right was cut away from that on the left, probably by Hayman himself, almost 300 years ago. It was later overpainted entirely, with the dress changed to green, and Hayman’s knee covered up. Its discovery by this gallery in the USA allows the work, Hayman's earliest, to be reunited once more. It is thought that the lady is Hayman’s first wife.

Anonymous sisters named as Elizabeth, Vere and Mary Egerton

This important portrait of three girls was recently acquired at auction by Philip Mould Ltd on behalf of a client. Our research led us to the identity of the sitters, who were three sisters; Elizabeth, Vere and Mary Egerton. The portrait was painted in c.1601.

Identifying Henry Stuart, Cardinal York