Queen Elizabeth I

Sitterback to top

• Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Reigned 1558-1603. Sitter associated with 125 portraits.

Artistback to top

• Unknown English artist. Artist associated with 10 portraits.

This portraitback to top

This painting is known as 'The Coronation portrait', and shows the Queen crowned, wearing the cloth of gold which she wore at her coronation on 15 January 1559, which had previously been worn by Mary I. She holds the orb and sceptre, symbols of her authority. The portrait appears to have been painted in about 1600, and is probably a copy of a lost original of c.1559.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Clare Gittings, The National Portrait Gallery Book of Elizabeth I, 2006, p. 8
• Cooper, John, Great Britons: The Great Debate, 2002, p. 39
• Gittings, Clare, The National Portrait Gallery Book of The Tudors, 2006, p. 20
• Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 199
• Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, 1997 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 8 November 1996 - 9 February 1997), p. 16
• Williamson, David, The National Portrait Gallery: History of the Kings and Queens of England, 1998, p. 101
• Williamson, David, Kings and Queens, 2010, p. 100

Subjects & Themesback to top

• Crowns and tiaras
• Fur accessories
• Jewellery
• On display at the Gallery
• Tudors and Elizabethans tour