Portret van koningin Elisabeth I van Engeland 1799 - 1822

This is Ludwig Rullmann’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was made sometime between 1765 and 1822, the years of his birth and death. But what can a portrait made so long after Elizabeth’s death tell us? Well, this image speaks less about the historical Elizabeth and more about how later eras viewed her reign. By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the idea of powerful female monarchs was again relevant. Think of Catherine the Great in Russia or, a little later, Queen Victoria here in Britain. This image presents Elizabeth as a powerful, bejeweled, yet still feminine icon. Historians can investigate a portrait like this, looking into the social and institutional contexts around its making. What political or cultural debates might this image have been part of? What did the artist and his patrons hope to communicate? It reminds us that even portraits of historical figures are always shaped by the moment of their creation.