A woman with pale skin, wearing a shimmering, azure-blue gown, stands next to a child with a pale pink complexion, wearing a flame-red suit in this vertical portrait painting. The woman stands at the center of the composition with her body angled to our left, but she looks at us from the corners of her brown eyes.
   She has a straight nose, softly arched brows, and her full, coral-pink lips are closed. A hint of a shiny silver earring pokes through brown ringlets, and one curl falls over one shoulder. Two long, white feathers droop off the side of her wide brimmed, black hat. The bodice and full skirt of her blue dress are trimmed with bands of gold along the hems, down the sleeves, and down the front of the skirt. The blue fabric is covered with short, diagonal strokes of lighter blue. White fabric covers the front of her bodice under a tall, wide, stiff, lacy white collar that extends from her chin to her shoulders. Two rose-pink bows are tied on the white fabric on her chest. The cuffs of her elbow-length sleeves have layers of white ruffles. She touches her skirt with her left hand, to our right, and with the other touches a monkey on the boy’s shoulder.
   To our left, the boy’s body faces us but he looks up at the woman with dark eyes. He has rounded cheeks, and his lips are parted in a slight smile. His shoulder-length blond hair reaches to his wide, lacy collar. His red suit has long sleeves, and the coat is buttoned down the front. Ivory-white gloves reach back over his forearms, and the tops of his knee-high, fawn-brown boots are folded over. He raises his left arm, closer to the woman, to hold a monkey on a tether. The monkey stands with its feet on the boy’s forearm and its front paws on the boy’s shoulder.
   The woman and boy stand on a wide, curved, peanut-brown stone step. A fluted column rises to our right of the woman, and a gold, brocade curtain hangs down the right edge of the canvas, partially in front of the column. A pearl-encrusted crown is tucked into the folds of the curtain. On a ledge to our left of the woman, a miniature orange tree grows in a pot. The landscape beyond has soft green trees against a blue sky mostly screened with parchment-brown clouds.

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   In 1632 Anthony van Dyck was invited to England to work at the court of King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. In Van Dyck, the royal couple and the English aristocracy found an artist whose gifts perfectly matched their artistic sensitivities as well as their political needs and aspirations. Van Dyck infused his portraits of the king and queen, including this depiction of Queen Henrietta Maria at age 24, with a tenderness and warmth of expression that fully convey the ideals of peace and harmony that underlay their philosophy of divine right to rule. Charles I not only commissioned Van Dyck to paint portraits for his own collection but also as gifts for loyal courtiers, ambassadors, and foreign rulers. This magnificent portrait of the Queen is the type of painting that the king would traditionally present to a court favorite for political purposes.

   Henrietta Maria, daughter of King Henri IV of France and sister of King Louis XIII, exerted a strong influence on court fashion and protocol, and introduced continental fashions and Italianate gardens to England. Van Dyck portrayed her dressed for the hunt in a brilliant blue satin riding costume with a delicate lace collar instead of the stiff and formal Elizabethan ruff still widely in use. Whereas the queen's graceful pose and demure expression are at once regal and endearing, her stylish wide-brim feathered black hat and shimmering dress create a sense of vibrancy and vitality.

   The queen's love of entertainment is symbolized by the presence of 14-year-old Sir Jeffrey Hudson and Pug the monkey, both royal favorites. Hudson's services had been offered to the queen when he was a young boy. He possessed a ready wit and became one of the queen's trusted advisors, even joining her in exile in France in the early years of the English Civil Wars (1642–1651).

   This portrait superbly demonstrates Van Dyck's working methods and the reasons for his phenomenal success. Even though the portrait shows a tall woman with an oval face, pointed chin, and long nose, the queen was reportedly petite, with a round head and delicate features. Van Dyck greatly idealized her in the portrait—and this artistic flattery must have pleased her. To further accentuate her status Van Dyck revisited a compositional idea he first developed in Genoa during the early 1620s with his portrait of Marchesa Elena Grimaldi Cattaneo: he has portrayed the queen standing just beyond the portico of an imposing architectural structure. The fluted column emphasizes her already exaggerated height, and the crown and cloth of gold emphasize her royalty. In preparation for the portrait, Van Dyck must have done a careful study of Henrietta Maria's head, but as she probably posed only briefly for a sketch of the overall composition, he likely painted the actual portrait from a model or mannequin dressed in the queen's costume.

   The orange tree behind Henrietta Maria, who was named after both her father, Henri IV of France, and her mother, Maria de' Medici, pays visual homage to her powerful Florentine ancestors. The Medici crest contains five gold balls, thought to represent oranges from the family's renowned citrus tree collection. A symbol of purity, chastity, and generosity, the orange tree was also associated with the Virgin Mary, Henrietta Maria's patron saint.

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