How is everyone doing this week?? I am closing in on the February 15th deadline, slowly but (hopefully) surely, and looking at summer clothes on shopping websites as I fantasize about sundress and sandal weather coming back again. (Surely it has to be somewhere in the not too distant future??). I’ve also been following the fascinating news about the discovery and identification of Richard III’s skeleton under a Leicester carpark (that was once the Greyfriars church). So amazing.
And I finally got some of the professional photos from my Dec. 15th wedding!
It made me wonder what sort of historical wedding portraits I could find. I discovered things like Arthur Davis’s Mr and Mrs Atherton, ca. 1743 (it was originally thought to have been painted for their wedding a decade earlier, but was then given the later date):
There was Gainsborough’s portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (and more importantly, their grand estate!):
There was Reynolds’s depiction of the marriage of George III:
Queen Victoria’s wedding:
Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Marriage:
And the famous image of Anne of Cleves by Holbein that enticed Henry VIII into marrying her–until he met her in person, then he “liked her not!” (I don’t know–I think she looks pretty enough):
And then there is this lady, Antoine Vestier’s Portrait of a Lady With a Book. I imagine she is thinking about throwing that book at her husband if he says One More annoying thing…
What is your favorite wedding portrait????