Queen Henrietta Maria with Sir Jeffrey Hudson

Anthony van Dyck had arrived in London only the year before, drawn from Antwerp to serve as principal painter to Charles the First, and this is among his first portraits of the queen, Henrietta Maria. She stands in blue satin riding dress, a hunting glove in hand, with two of her favourites beside her: a pet monkey called Pug, perched on the arm of Sir Jeffrey Hudson. Hudson was about 14 here and stood well under four feet tall. He had been presented to the queen as a small boy, reportedly served up to her hidden inside a pie, and he grew into one of her trusted companions. Van Dyck sets the little group against a great column and a fall of heavy drapery, the grand stage-setting of court portraiture he had brought with him from Antwerp.