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The Courtship of Anne Boleyn
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (born Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany 1816-died Washington, DC 1868)
1846
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 28 1/2 x 40 1/8 in. (72.4 x 101.8 cm)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
This painting shows King Henry VIII of England and his mistress, Anne Boleyn. Henry fell in love with Anne, Queen Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, and divorced his Spanish wife so that he could marry her. To the left of Henry and Anne, the ambassador from Spain expresses his disgust as he watches the king carry out his affair in public. Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze was a supporter of the American and German revolutions and may have painted King Henry’s infamous betrayal to show his distaste for royalty.
