Portrait of Catherine of Bragança, Queen of England

Portrait in which the queen is depicted wearing a red cloak lined with ermine, a pearl necklace and earrings, with a lozenge-shaped jewel with diamonds and a pearl pendant on her breast. Her left arm is resting on a pedestal on which stand the crown and sceptre. There are numerous portraits of this queen, with a large number of engravings and paintings. The daughter of King João IV and Queen Luísa de Gusmão, the Dukes of Bragança and the King and Queen of Portugal, Princess Catherine became the wife of Charles II of England (1630-1685) and the Queen of England through the Treaty of 23 June 1661, signed in Whitehall. Besides a large sum of money, her dowry also included the territories of Tangier and Bombay. Despite the fact that she was Catholic and bore the king no children, he did not yield to the pressures to divorce her, and they remained married for 23 years. Nine years after becoming a widow, Catherine returned to Portugal, where her brother Pedro II was now king, and later died at the Palace of Bemposta. Sir Peter Lely was born under the name of Pieter Van de Foes in Westphalia and studied painting in Harlem. He moved to London in 1641, the year of the death of the painter Anthony Van Dyck, whom he succeeded as the private artist of Charles I, successively painting portraits of Charles I, Cromwell and Charles II. Together with his pupils, who finished off his paintings, he produced more than five hundred works.