Portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria as a Widow

Description Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) was the daughter of King Henry IV of France and the sister of Louis XIII. In 1625, she married King Charles I of England. She urged her husband to protect Catholics in England, which was then officially Protestant. After Charles's downfall and execution in 1649, the queen lived chiefly in France, even after the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660. The widowed queen wears the ropes of pearls along with a crucifix in diamonds or rock crystal with pearls that demonstrated the magnificence expected for formal portraits of royalty in the mid 1600s.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/31/1951	Examination	examined for condition; examined for survey
12/01/1956	Treatment	coated; inpainted; varnish removed or reduced
4/15/2005	Treatment	filled; inpainted; lined; varnish removed or reduced

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, no. 645; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902