Queen Elizabeth I, from the studio of Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1599. Hardwick Hall.
Hardwick Hall © National Trust, acc. no. NT 1129128.
A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, painted around 1599 in the studio of the English goldsmith and painter, Nicholas Hilliard, shows the British queen in the last years of her life. The portrait was perhaps commissioned by Bess of Hardwick, and is housed in Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire. The painting measures 223.5 x 169 cm.
Elizabeth's dress is richly embroidered with dragons, sea serpents, birds and flowers, and heralds the later fashion of the colourful Jacobean embroidery. It has been suggested that Bess of Hardwick herself designed and worked the embroidery of the dress.
See the entry on a painting of Queen Elizabeth I of England, also by Nicholas Hilliard.
National Trust online catalogue (retrieved 22 January 2017).
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