Henry VIII’s Wives Reign in the Exhibition, ‘Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII’s Queens’

Henry VIII's six wives are often relegated to a footnote in English history. London's National Portrait Gallery hopes to help reverse that with the exhibition, Six Lives: The Stories of Henry VIII's Queens.

Opening last June 20, the exhibition dedicates a gallery to each of Henry's wives: Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr. It explores, not only their personal lives, but also their influence on politics and history-an influence that still echoes today. Six Lives features exquisite paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger-making for the NPG's first historical portrait exhibition since its refurbishment-the queens' personal possessions (such as playing cards, prayer books and watercolors), and an immense variety of media portraying the queens centuries after they died.

otheby's Preview Exhibition of Old Master — LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 30: One of the only surviving contemporary portraits of Queen Katherine Parr (estimated at £600,000-800,000) goes on public view at Sotheby's on June 30, 2023 in London, England. The painting will be offered as part of the Old Master Paintings Evening Auction on 5 July, 2023. Shane Anthony Sinclair/Getty Images for Sotheby's

Included in the exhibition are 19^th century paintings by Henry Andrews, William Lindsay Windus, and David Wilkie Wynfield; costumes for television, film, and theater-including from SIX the musical; and black-and-white photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, who used the queens' wax models at Madam Tussauds' as his subjects. The Gallery describes Sugimoto's work as exploring "the tension between the real and the imagined. Their adherence to the conventions of studio portraiture make it seem as if the women have stepped out of history, exemplifying the way in which we use stories and our imagination to read portraits and bridge time."

Also present are figures who surrounded the queens, including Joan, Lady Meutas, who served four of them.

Henry VIII, of course, is also there: although his six wives are in the spotlight, his immense field and tournament armour and a copy of his lost portrait by Holbein, displayed at the start of the exhibition, announce his imposing presence.

Henry's queens have inspired the five centuries of artifacts displayed in Six Lives, but also the other NPG activities, including multiple lectures and workshops, as well as the Gallery's staging of Six the Musical, which reimagines the six queens as singers who later form their own band.

Six Lives will remain on display at the National Portrait Gallery until September 8.