米謝爾·嚴斯·凡·米勒維特及其畫室

The Dukes of Leeds, Hornby Castle, and by descent;
By whom sold ('The Property of the 10th Duke of Leeds Will Trust), London, Christie's, 1 December 2000, lot 4 (as Studio of Gerrit van Honthorst);
Where purchased by Richard Green, London;
From whom acquired by the present owners.

London, Ministry of Works at Lancaster House, on loan, from before 1963;
London, National Portrait Gallery, The Winter Queen: Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia and her Family, November 1963, no. 78 (as After Michael Jansz van Miereveldt) and no. 70 (as After Gerard Honthorst), both loaned from the Ministry of Works.

Historical and Descriptive Catalogue of Pictures Belonging to His Grace the Duke of Leeds, London 1902, p. 28, cat. nos. 72 and 70 (as Mytens), as hanging in The Great Hall, Hornby Castle;
R. Strong, The Winter Queen: Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, and her Family, exhibition catalogue, London 1963, cat. no. 78 (as After Michael Jansz van Miereveldt) and cat. no. 70 (as After Gerard Honthorst);
W-J Hoogsteder, De Schilderijen van Frederik en Elizabeth, Koning en Koningen van Bohemen, MA thesis, London and Utrecht 1984-86, vol. I, p. 145 and reproduced vol. III, fig 140 and 141. 

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The pair of large oils on canvas have been lined onto comparatively new keyed wooden stretchers and these are ensuring secure and stable structural supports. There are canvas seams running vertically down the left side of both canvases. Paint surface The paint surfaces of both paintings have even varnish layers and appear to have been recently and carefully restored and revarnished and the fine details of the paintings appear well preserved. Inspection under ultraviolet light shows scattered retouchings on both paintings, the most significant of which are: A) "Portrait of Frederick I, King of Bohemia" 1) Broad retouchings on his left hand and small retouchings on his right hand, 2) a few small retouchings on his costume, 3) small retouchings on his face and white ruff and other small, scattered retouchings. B) "Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart, Daughter of James I and Queen of Bohemia" 1) Small scattered retouchings on her flesh tones and the fine details of her costume, 2) and more retouchings in the background and dark pigments of her costume than are apparent on the costume of Frederick. There may be other retouchings beneath old, opaque varnish layers that are not identifiable under ultraviolet light. Summary The pair of paintings would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition, having been carefully restored and conserved in the past and no further work is required.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

One of only three surviving pairs of full length portraits of the Winter King and Queen, these are grand depictions of two of the most tragic and yet romantic figures of the Stuart period.¹ Elizabeth was born at Falkland Palace in August 1596 and was the only surviving daughter of James I and his wife Anne of Denmark.  She was known to have been a striking beauty when young, educated to a high standard, and strict in her adherence to the Reformed faith that she had learned from her guardian John, Lord Harrington of Exton, and her elder brother whom she idolised, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Elizabeth's marriage to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, was a happy and affectionate one. Frederick was the son of Frederick IV and of Louise Juliana of Orange-Nassau, the daughter of William the Silent, and had been brought up in Heidelberg and Sedan. A member of the House of Palatinate-Simmern, Frederick was related to almost all of the leading families of the Holy Roman Empire. The match was deemed beneficial to both parties; for Frederick it meant a more important position amongst the German states, and in England it was seen as a Protestant alliance which was celebrated with plays, poems and a masque entitled Masque of Truth.

The newly married couple travelled back to Heidelberg, and within only a few years, in August 1619, the Bohemian states deposed the Archduke Ferdinand and offered Frederick the crown of Bohemia. Frederick accepted, and was crowned in Prague in November of that year, thus initiating a turning point in their lives. Frederick’s reign was short lived. By October 1620 Catholic forces were close to the city, and in November his troops suffered a devastating defeat at the battle of the White Mountain. Elizabeth and Frederick's nickname ‘The Winter King and Queen’ is owed to their rule in Bohemia not lasting much longer than one winter. The royal couple fled and were received in The Hague by the Stadholder Maurice of Orange on 14 April 1621. Frederick and Elizabeth were to remain in exile from the Palatine Court for the rest of their lives. They established their large family in The Hague and lived there with all the trappings of a royal court with frequent dances and hunting expeditions. It was during this early period of the family’s residence at The Hague that dozens of portraits were commissioned of the King and Queen, and of their children and political supporters.

The crushing loss of his hereditary dominions and also his electoral dignity left Frederick in despair. Yet for Elizabeth these desperate times roused in her a new found political determination and she fought, undismayed, for the Palatine cause against heavy odds. The situation was not, however, to improve for them, for Frederick died in November 1632 whilst visiting the Palatinate, which had been recently liberated by the Swedes. Elizabeth was devastated by the loss of her beloved husband. Nevertheless, she rejected her brother Charles I’s offer of a home in England, recognising that to withdraw to her homeland now would mean the abandoning of any claims to the Palatinate for herself and her children. Elizabeth remained at The Hague for much of the rest of her life only returning to England, following the Restoration in 1661, where she died the following year. She was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside her favourite brother Henry Frederick.

Together with Gerrit van Honthorst, Mierevelt was the favoured portraitist of the exiled Palatine court. Mierevelt’s first portraits of the King and Queen date to 1613, when the newlyweds first passed through the Netherlands en route to take up residence in Heidelberg after their wedding.¹ A second set of portraits date to 1621 when the couple were settled back in The Hague after their brief Bohemian rule.² Both Mierevelt’s 1613 and 1621 portrait types proved to be enormously popular, and were engraved and reproduced both within Mierevelt’s studio and by followers of the artist. No doubt these famous images of the Winter King and Queen were much in demand by the family and supporters of the couple who had come to be seen throughout Europe as martyrs to the Protestant cause. In 1628 Mierevelt produced a new portrait type, of which the present pair of portraits are the finest extant full-length examples. The Queen undoubtedly sat afresh to Mierevelt for her portrait is quite new, but for the King Mierevelt seems to have reused the likeness from the earlier portraits painted in 1621.

The Dukes of Leeds, in whose collection the present works were for over a century, are descended from Sir Edward Osborne, 1st Baronet of Kiveton (1596–1647) who was at the time of the Civil War a staunch supporter of the Royalist cause, and although the Dukes of Leeds only came to Hornby Castle in 1784, it is unsurprising to find portraits of the family and supporters of Charles I in collections of the families of those devoted supporters of the King. What's more, through their grandson George I, the Protestant succession of England passed to the house of Hanover, and portraits of the Winter King and Queen were treasured by supporters of the Glorious Revolution and the Hanoverians.  

The attribution of Michiel van Mierevelt was first proposed by Willem-Jan Hoogsteder, and has most recently been endorsed by Dr. Rudolf E.O. Ekkart and Anita Jansen, who note that the very high quality of the pictures indicates they were painted with Mierevelt's involvement and under his direct supervision.

We are grateful to Dr. Rudolf E.O. Ekkart, former director of the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistoriche Documentatie, The Hague, for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. Two other pairs of portraits of the Winter King and Queen, both by Honthorst, are in an English private collection (see Hoogsteder 1984–86, vol. III, figs. 33 and 34), and in the Heidelberg Museum (see Hoogsteder 1984–86, vol. III, figs. 35 and 36).

2. For examples of these first versions of Mierevelt’s portraits of the Winter King and Queen see Hoogsteder 1984–86, vol. III, figs. 128–131.

3. For examples of Mierevelt’s portraits of the Winter King and Queen dated from 1621, see Hoogsteder 1984–86, vol. III, figs. 132–139.

4. Hoogsteder 1984–86, vol. I, p. 145.