Charles I's Lost Collection
Find out how Charles I built one of the most extraordinary art collections in 17th-century Europe
Reading time: 3 minutes
When Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland came to the throne in 1625, he began assembling one of history’s greatest art collections. He bought paintings by Renaissance masters, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Titian, and was Britain’s first collector of Rembrandt van Rijn. He also employed the most prominent Flemish court painter of the Baroque era, Anthony van Dyck, who painted several portraits of the monarch. Among the most well-known is Charles I in Three Positions, a reference painting for the Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Peter Paul Rubens, who visited the English court on several occasions, judged the monarch as:
The greatest amateur of paintings among the princes of the world
The King's Collecting Habits
At the beginning of Charles’s reign, the royal picture collection was modest in size compared to other European courts. This was largely due to the Protestant Reformation. Protestants viewed devotion to religious art as a form of idolatry - the worship of idols. As a result, Reformation leaders ordered the destruction of religious art and material culture, leading to a major decline in visual art in Britain.
However, at the time of the king's first major inventory around 1639, the collection had changed beyond all recognition. In just two years, between 1636 and 1638, he had acquired over 500 paintings. This included his purchase of the collection owned by the Dukes of Mantua and 23 Italian paintings from the dealer William Frizell. Among these acquisitions were works by Titian, Raphael, Caravaggio, Antonio da Correggio, Giulio Romano and Andrea del Sarto.
When it comes to fine pictures by the hands of first-class masters, I have never seen such a large number in one place as in the royal palace
Charles's art collection was shaped, in part, by his family. His mother, Anne of Denmark was an enthusiastic patron of the arts. She imparted a love of painting and music in her children and throughout the Stuart Court. His father, James I (sometimes referred to as the scholar-king), was a learned man with a deep interest in theology and an extensive personal library. Charles was also a member of the ‘Whitehall Group’, a small circle of connoisseurs and collectors primarily interested in acquiring works by Old Masters. The group included Charles’s close friend and agent, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
The king’s collecting habits, which were nothing short of feverish, led Rubens to make the comment: ‘…when it comes to fine pictures by the hands of first-class masters, I have never seen such a large number in one place as in the royal palace’. Another of Britain’s great art collectors at the time, the Earl of Arundel, said of the king’s tastes: he ‘…knows best what he hath gusto in’.
Charles was said to prefer old pieces (mainly 16th-century) to more modern ones ‘because of their rarity’. He also followed European taste for the new Baroque-style artists. However, while he was decisive, he could also be fussy. One of Charles’s agents warned another to avoid the work of Paolo Veronese when scouting pictures for the Royal Collection, as he was an artist ‘not very acceptable to the King’.
Charles I's execution
Following Charles I’s execution in 1649, which marked the end of the English Civil War, his art collection of around 1,500 pictures, 500 sculptures and countless other works of art such as tapestries, hangings, coins and medals was sold. When the monarchy was restored in 1660, his son Charles II attempted to recover the collection. But by then, many of the most valuable works were already scattered across Europe. Those works are now included in some of the world’s greatest museums, such as Paris's Musée du Louvre, Madrid's Museo Nacional del Prado and Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum.
Research for a project into Charles I’s Lost Collection was carried out by Niko Munz while at Royal Collection Trust (2016-2019). Niko Munz continues to consult on queries and research relating to the project.
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