King Edward IV

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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King Edward IV

by Unknown English artist
oil on panel, circa 1540
13 in. x 10 3/4 in. (330 mm x 273 mm)
Purchased, 1947
Primary Collection
NPG 3542

On display in Room 1 on Floor 3 at the National Portrait Gallery

Sitterback to top

  • King Edward IV (1442-1483), Reigned 1461-70 and 1471-83. Sitter associated with 37 portraits.

Artistback to top

This portraitback to top

This painting is one of a series of depictions of kings of England which were produced towards the end of Henry VIII's reign by a workshop operating at that time.

Linked publicationsback to top

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1540back to top

Current affairs

King Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves in January but then takes Catherine Howard as a mistress in June. Henry and Anne's marriage is annulled and he weds Catherine in July.
Sir Thomas Cromwell is beheaded for High Treason. Catharine Howard's uncle, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk replaces him as Henry VIII's chief minister.
Waltham Abbey becomes the final abbey to be closed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Art and science

Stirling Palace begun for King James V of Scotland, it is built in the French Renaissance style.

International

The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V enters Ghent in Flanders after the city had offered its allegiance to Francis I of France.
Pope Paul III grants official approval the Catholic Order of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, through the papal bull Regimini militantis ecclesiae (To the Government of the Church Militant).

Tell us more back to top

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Howard Jones

27 March 2021, 17:48

The Indianapolis Museum of Art has a painting in store of titled French an Unkown Man ac no. 1983.48 which appears to depict the English King Edward IV who reigned 1461-1483. The clothes worn in the Clowes Foundation painting clearly match those worn by the King in many of the NPGs pictures.

The main difference between this new portrait and other paintings is that it appears to show Edward as a younger man. Edward was just 19 yrs age when he gained victory at the Battle of Towton to win the English Crown for the House of York.

Presently the painting is dated to the early 1600s but perhaps dendrochronology could provide a more accurate check to see if it might be older.

http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/54110/

Howard Jones


King Edward's NPGs pictures.
1983.48

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