The Streatham Portrait is a late 16th century copy of a now lost oil painting depicting an English woman It was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery of London for a rumored 100 000 Although this purchase has proven controversial there is no doubt the

The author argues that the Streatham Portrait is a worthy addition to the National Portrait Gallery of London because the subject of the portrait is Lady Jane Grey, an English woman of importance. The author provides several explanations as to why the subject of the painting is in fact, Lady Jane Grey. Unfortunately, there are many assumptions in the author’s argument that makes the argument unconvincing, which we will go into further detail below.

The largest assumption that the author makes is that the subject of the painting is Lady Jane, which gives the Streatham Portrait its worth. We will take the author’s assumption at face value and pretend that the subject of the portrait is, in fact, Lady Jane Grey. As the author pointed out, Lady Jane was the queen of England for nine days before her execution in 1554, making her possibly one of the shortest reigning queens in British history. Thus, we must need to evaluate Lady Jane by historical context — is she someone who is important in the history of England thus making this portrait work $100,000? If the author can provide more information on Lady Jane’s reign, along with how she affected or influenced society and history, we can then begin to evaluate if this is a worthy investment at all.

The author also provided multiple reasons as to why he believes the subject of the portrait is Lady Jane, which we will proceed to shine doubt on. Remember — because the author bases the value of the portrait on the identity of the woman, disproving the woman to be Lady Jane will render the worth of the portrait. The author uses the faint inscription “Lady Jayne” as support to his argument that the woman is in fact, Lady Jane. However, the spelling of the inscription differs to that of Lady Jane’s real name, which sheds doubt on the author’s statement. Additionally, inscriptions are normally made to identify the artist of the painting instead of the subject. If anything, the inscription provides stronger evidence that Lady Jane painted the portrait, more than that the portrait is of Lady Jane. If the author can provide historical evidence that “Jayne” was the typical spelling of “Jane in the 16th century, or that the practice during that time was to have an inscription of the subject in portraits, this would make the evidence more solid.

Another piece of evidence the author cites is that the woman in the portrait resembles Jane’s sisters, Catherin and Mary. This also doesn’t confirm that the woman is Lady Jane. While the subject could in fact be Lady Jane, it could equally be any female members of the Grey family such as Lady Jane’s other sisters, mother or cousins. If there was another official and certified portrait of Lady Jane, we can compare the two portraits to ascertain whether the Streatham Portrait depicts Lady Jane. Other pieces of work would support the author’s argument more than a resemblance between family members.

Last but not least, the author argues that the jewelry and costume of the women in the portrait are emblems of the Grey family. This evidence is flimsy at best, since any woman from a wealthy family can procure similarly lavish jewelry and costumes. Additionally, any woman can still wear pinks in their ensemble even if it was an emblem of the Grey family. If I were to don a dress decorated with pinks, that would not make me part of the Grey family. As such, all evidence provided by the author only suggests the possibility of the woman in the portrait being Lady Jane, but is not concrete evidence that she is.

In conclusion, the author needs to provide more evidence to prove that the woman in the portrait is Lady Jane in order to support his claim, which is based entirely on the identity of the woman. Without further proof, there is no way we can logically confirm that the woman is Lady Jane and thus can not ascertain the value of the Streatham Portrait.