The Whitehall Mural, 1737 (pen & w/c with bodycolour on paper)

This watercolour is a copy by George Vertue of Remigius van Leemput's painting after a mural by Hans Holbein the Younger. The original mural was commissioned by Henry VIII in 1537 for his palace of Whitehall in central London, and destroyed in the fire in that palace in 1698. Vertue copied van Leemput's painting (also in the Royal Collection; see RCIN 405750) in 1737, two hundred years after Holbein had made the original painting. The picture shows Henry VIII, standing to the left, and his third wife Jane Seymour to the right. Behind them stand Henry's parents Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. The figures surround a central monument, on which is carved an inscription commemorating Henry VII as a great king, and Henry VIII as a greater one still. Vertue's copy is not entirely faithful to van Leemput's painting; he did not include the codpiece worn by Henry VIII in van Leemput's copy and, presumably, in the original mural. Queen Elizabeth, consort of Henry VII, King of England (1466-1503) Queen Jane, 3rd consort of Henry VIII, King of England (c. 1508-37) Henry VII, King of England (1457-1509) Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547)