An art historian has identified a missing portrait of King Henry VIII after spotting it on social media, according to CNN. British fine art researcher Adam Busiakiewicz was idly scrolling on X when he was stopped in his tracks by a post from somebody he follows.
The post was a photograph shared by Tim Cox, the Lord Lieutenant of Warwickshire – an honorary position representing the British Crown in the central English county. It showed a gathering at a reception in Warwick’s Shire Hall, where Warwickshire County Council is based.
But Busiakiewicz wasn’t interested in the people smiling at the camera. His focus was on the background where, hanging on a wall, was what he suspected was a missing portrait of the Tudor monarch Henry VIII.
In a post published on his blog earlier this month, Busiakiewicz said he had been “scrolling at speed” when he spotted the painting “with a distinctive arched top” on the wall.
He was immediately reminded of a series of 22 portraits commissioned by a local politician and tapestry-maker during the 1590s.
According to Busiakiewicz, Ralph Sheldon commissioned the pictures – which were mostly of kings, queens and “significant contemporary international figures” – to hang in his home, Weston House in Warwickshire. The reason they had arched tops was because they “were once incorporated into an architectural frieze of the Long Gallery at Weston,” Busiakiewicz said.
In a press release sent to CNN, Busiakiewicz said the arched top was a “special feature of the Sheldon set,” while the painting’s frame was “identical to other surviving examples.”
The painting also showed the king holding a sword and wearing a feathered hat – just as he appeared in an engraving of the Long Hall made by antiquarian Henry Shaw in 1839.
Busiakiewicz told CNN that the identity of the painter is not known, but the creator of the portraits is “sometimes referred to as The Sheldon Master.”
He is now working on trying to establish the painting’s provenance. It was acquired by the council as recently as 1951 but there are gaps in the records.
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