The stories behind Elizabethan and Jacobean pregnancy portraits are to be told in a presentation at a London museum.
Illustrations of pregnancy at the time were rare — even though many women spent a large proportion of their adult lives pregnant.
Art historian Karen Hearn will give insights into the unusual paintings at Valence House Museum in Dagenham, which owns one of them.
The image, of Lady Anne Fanshawe, was painted in 1630 by Marcus Gheeraerts II, Elizabeth I’s court artist, and is on permanent display at the museum.
Ms Hearn is an honorary professor at University College London and a former Tate Britain curator. Her talk at the museum, on August 5, will set the Gheeraerts painting in context.
Museum curator Leeanne Westwood said: “Gheeraerts was unusual because he was painting pregnant women when pregnancy was taboo and women would often have to go into seclusion.
“Lady Fanshawe was heavily pregnant in the painting and she died in childbirth. She was married at 20, dead at 21. It was very likely painted after her death.”
Tickets for the talk are £3 and must be booked in advance on 020 8227 2034.
