Iconic Armada portrait of Elizabeth I acquired for Britain

The iconic portrait of the Queen was purchased from the descendants of Sir Francis Drake after a Heritage Lottery Fund grant

Clarisse Loughrey
Friday 29 July 2016 16:23 BST
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Queen Elizabeth I; utterly triumphant against those who doubted her powers as a monarch, and as a woman.

Bejewelled, one hand rested on a globe. This is the queen who has gone down in history, her image preserved in the midst of the Spanish Armada's defeat in August 1588; captured by an unknown artist in circa 1590, in a work known only as the Armada portrait.

It's a portrait now finally in the hands of Britain (via The Guardian), purchased on its behalf from the descendants of Sir Francis Drake after a grant of £7.4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) helped fulfil a campaign to raise the £10.3 million needed.

The fundraising campaign for the portrait's acquisition was launched in May by the Art Fund, which itself contributed £1 million; as well as the Royal Museums of Greenwich, which donated last year's entire acquisitions budget of £400,000. The campaign further saw 8,000 donations from the public within ten weeks.

It will now hang in the national collection of Royal Museums Greenwich; in the Queen's house of Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth I was born, set to reopen in October after major restoration works.

"The Armada portrait is a compelling historic icon, illustrating as it does a decisive conflict, inspiring female leadership, maritime power and the emergence of the Elizabethan golden age," stated Sir Peter Luff, chair of the HLF. "This image has shaped our understanding of Gloriana, the Virgin Queen, for over 400 years and I am delighted that it will now have such an appropriate permanent home in Greenwich."

"The painting captured the national imagination in 2016 as surely as the defeat of the Armada itself had done in 1588," stated Art Fund director Stephen Deuchar. "Record numbers of donors, large and small, stepped forward with determination and generosity, creating an irresistible momentum that has brought this great work into public ownership at last."

The specific work is one of three known versions of the Armada portrait, yet it is considered the most significant due to the fact it was owned by Sir Francis Drake; who was second in command of the English fleet during the Armada's defeat. It has remained in the possession of his descendants since at least 1775, spending much of its life hanging over a mantelpiece in Shardeloes, a Buckinghamshire estate built for William Drake in the 18th century.

The Armada portrait will be on display in the Queen's House when it reopens on 11 October, before undergoing conservation in 2017.

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