Hampton Court ... Illustrated with forty-three drawings by Herbert ...

182 HAMPTON COURT
portrait of herself at the easel should be studied;
Steenwyck the younger, precise and graceful artist;
Honthorst,too, with his night-pieces, the Joseph and
Mary (No. 383), and "Singing by lamplight" (No.
393), and that fine portrait oftheunhappy Elizabethof
Bohemia (No. 128), worthy to stand beside Merevelt's
charming presentment of her little son. This last
picture, Mr.Law shows, was left to Charles II.(then
Prince of Wales), by Sir Henry Wotton, in the words,
" Ileave to the most hopeful prince the picture of the
elected and crowned Queen of Bohemia, his aunt, of
clear and resplendent virtues through the clouds of her
fortune." There are also the Poelembergs, and especially
that of the childrenof Elizabeth of Bohemia; Van
Bassen, Charles and his wife dining in public, which,
though the scene is probably Whitehall, may give an
idea of their life at Hampton Court; and many more.
" Old Stone " is here with a fine copy of Titian's
Cornaro family (No. 444). William Dobson, the
kindly " English Vandyck," has here a " portrait of
twogentlemen," and a charming half-length of himself
and his wife.
From the portraits that belong to the historical
setting of Charles's life we pass naturally to the collection
which he formed. Here it is well to include other
pictures of the same masters not necessarily collected
by him. Charles was the only king who set himself
to make a fine gallery at Hampton Court, and when we
consider the masterpieces he collected, we may well put
with them other works added at other times.