It is well known that, in 1623, Charles, then Prince of Wales,
accompanied by his father’s favourite, George Villiers, the celebrated
Duke of Buckingham, visited Madrid, with the avowed object of wooing and
winning the Infanta. We are informed by Pacheco, that his son-in-law,
Velasquez, received one hundred crowns for taking the portrait of the
prince, probably designed as a present to his lady-love. The suit,
however, proved unsuccessful; but what became of the picture has not
been recorded, even incidentally. There is reason to suppose it was
committed to the custody of Villiers, who had at York House, which
occupied the site of Villiers, Duke, and Buckingham streets, in the
Adelphi, a splendid collection of pictures. Charles, on his return from
Spain, reached York House past midnight, on the 6th of October; and the
picture may have been left there in some private apartment, and
afterwards have gradually fallen out of mind. There was a sale of
pictures on the assassination of the first duke. Again, when the second
duke fled to the Continent, to escape the vengeance of the parliament,
he sold part of his paintings to raise money for his personal support;
and according to a catalogue of these pictures, compiled by Vertue, the
Velasquez was not among them. Subsequently, the parliament sold part of
the remaining pictures. Either at or before the death of the second
duke, a fourth sale took place. In 1697, York House was burned down; and
it is possible the missing portrait may have been in the house at this
date.
A very interesting search after the lost treasure is detailed in a
pamphlet, extending to 228 pages, published in 1847, from which these
particulars are, in the main, condensed:
About four years since, Mr. Snare, a bookseller, at Reading, and a
dealer in pictures, was much struck with the notice of the
long-lost portrait of Charles, by Velasquez, which occurs in Mr.
Ford’s _Hand-Book for Spain_. Not long after, Mr. Snare,
accompanied by a portrait-painter also living at Reading, went to
Radley Hall, between Abingdon and Oxford, and there, among other
pictures, saw a portrait in which he recognised the features of
Charles the First; the owner told him the figure was by Vandyke,
and the back ground by the artist’s most clever pupils; but a
dreamy conviction came over Mr. Snare that it was the missing
portrait by Velasquez. On the 25th of October, 1845, the pictures
in Radley Hall were sold by auction; Mr. Snare attended, and bought
the portrait for 8_l._, notwithstanding many picture-dealers were
present. After some delay, he took the treasure home: he put it in
all lights; he moistened it with turpentine, which strengthened his
conviction: he ran for his wife to admire it with him, and he was
wrought up to the highest pitch.
“I was quite beside myself,” says he, “with enthusiasm. I could not
eat, and had no inclination to sleep. I sat up till three o’clock
looking at the picture; and early in the morning I rose to place
myself once more before it. I only took my eyes from the painting
to read some book that made reference to the Spaniard whom I
believed its author, or to the Flemish artist to whom, by vague
report, it was attributed.”
To trace the pedigree of the picture was the possessor’s next
object; and, in Pennant’s _London_, he found mentioned the house of
the Earl of Fife, as standing on part of the site of the palace of
Whitehall, anciently called York House, which Mr. Snare confuses
with the York House beyond Hungerford Market, the family mansion of
the Duke of Buckingham. Among the works which adorned Fife House,
Pennant mentions--
“A head of Charles I., when Prince of Wales, done in Spain when he
was there in 1623 on his romantic expedition to court the Infanta.
It is supposed to have been the work of Velasco.”
Here was some clue. Mr. Snare then traced the owner of Radley Hall
to have received the picture from a connoisseur, who in his turn
received a number of pictures from the Earl of Fife’s undertaker,
after his lordship’s funeral, in 1809.
Next he discovered a quarto pamphlet, entitled, “Catalogue of the
Portraits and Pictures in the different houses belonging to the
Earl of Fife, 1798.” A reprint of this catalogue was then found in
the possession of Colonel Tynte, of Halewell, dated in 1807, the
only alteration being a slight addition to the preface. Colonel
Tynte remembers having been shown the pictures at Fife House, by
the Earl himself. On page 38 of the Catalogue, under the head,
“First Drawing-room,” the following entry occurs:--
“Charles I. when Prince of Wales. Three quarters. Painted at
Madrid, 1625, when his marriage with the Infanta was proposed.
---- Velasquez. This picture belonged to the Duke of Buckingham.”
Pennant, however, speaks of the portrait as a head; but this may be
owing to confused recollection, especially as there appears to have
been in the ‘Little Drawing-room of the hall’ a head of Charles I.
by old Stone.
Two persons, upon inspecting the portrait, next identified it as
the picture they had seen at the connoisseur’s, and at the
undertaker’s.
The general opinion, however, seemed to be that the painting was by
Vandyke, not by Velasquez: so believed its possessor at Radley
Hall, and the experienced person who cleaned the picture for Mr.
Snare. He, on the other hand, maintains that although Vandyke was
in England for a few weeks in 1620, there is no proof that he
painted for royalty till 1632, when Charles was too old for the
portrait in question, and when any allusion to the Spanish match
would have been an insult to the nation.
Cumberland, in his “Anecdotes of Eminent Painters in Spain,” states
that Prince Charles did not sit to Velasquez, but that he
(Velasquez) took a sketch of the prince, as he was accompanying
King Philip in the chase. Pacheco seems to have been the authority
to Cumberland, who, however, has mistranslated the passage, which
really should be “in the meantime, he also took a sketch
(_bosquexo_) of the Prince of Wales, who presented him with one
hundred crowns.” The word “sketch,” however suggests another
difficulty, for the picture itself is a fine painting on canvas.
Mr. Ford, in his _Hand Book for Spain_, comes to the rescue, when
he says that Velasquez “seems to have drawn on the canvas, for any
sketches or previous studies are not to be met with.” Still, the
picture in question is all but finished. In it can be traced the
red earthy preparation of the canvas, and the light colour over it,
which Velasquez was accustomed to introduce. The pigments also bear
decisive evidence of their belonging to the Spanish school, and
are exactly similar to the pigments used in the authenticated works
of Velasquez--“the Water Seller,” in the possession of his Grace
the Duke of Wellington; the portrait of Philip II., in the Dulwich
Gallery; and a whole-length portrait, the property of the Earl of
Ellesmere.