A painting of Henry VIII belonging to Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Victoria Art Gallery has been confirmed as an original Tudor work.
The portrait had been a source of mystery for the Art Gallery of NSW, which was recently sent away for essential conservation work and, at the same time, was dated by specialists using dendrochronology (looking at tree rings to date the wood the picture is painted on).
Dr Matthew Brookhouse of the Australian National University Fenner School of Environment and Society has been able to date the oak panel painting to 1525, using specialised scanning technology and his own expertise in annual tree-rings.
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating using the annual nature of tree growth in suitable tree species. Dendrochronology allows the exact calendar year in which each tree rings was formed to be established enabling the precise dating of trees and timbers.
Dr Brookhouse had initially examined the work several years ago using standard methods, but was unable to date it without sanding the edge of the panel or otherwise altering the work.
But the gallery more recently had the chance to use a high-tech scanning procedure at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne to analyse layer of paint, which co-incidentally revealed the underlying structure of the wood for the first time.
Scans of the wood panel beneath the paint have revealed tree rings which show the oak was felled in 1525, the year Henry became bewitched by Anne Boleyn, a crucial period in English history.
Although the scans did not help identify the artist, it has become the first oak panel painting to ever be dated through dendrochronology, or tree ring dating. Dr Brookhouse’s research was able to determine not only the time in which the tree was felled and turned into a panel but also that the tree likely grew near Sussex in the South-West of England.
To confirm the date, the team then collaborated with the University of St Andrews in Scotland and University College London to compare the scan with Britain’s tree-ring databases.
The scan was also able to reveal where the painting had been altered around the placement of Henry’s hand.
Like many portraits of Henry VIII, it was copied from the Whitehall mural, which was painted in 1537 by Hans Holbein the Younger for Henry VIII’s apartment at Whitehall Palace. The original no longer exists as Whitehall Palace was destroyed by fire in 1698.
Dr Bookhouse added: “The information revealed in the underlying wood is an incredibly wonderful outcome all of its own and independent of the original objective.”
The Henry portrait, which had been in storage since its purchase in 1961, is now on display at the Art Gallery of NSW.
