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????
Amanda, thanks so much for sharing with us. You look so lovely!!! And so very happy. It makes me smile just to look at all of you.
I can’t think of a favorite historical wedding portrait. As far as Regency images, mostly I’ve seen individual portraits or family groups. When I blogged about Lady Harriet Cavendish, Countess Granville, I included a picture that looks like the happy ending of the traditional Regency romance.
http://www.riskyregencies.com/2012/04/06/my-regency-friend-harriet-part-i/
Oh, Amanda! I think my favorite wedding picture of all time is now the black and white of you and the dh! You look so beautiful and he looks so handsome.
Thank you so much for sharing.
What a truly beautiful wedding!
Thank you so much, Elena and Diane! It was a lovely evening.
When I went looking for historical wedding images I had a surprisingly hard time–not many brides or bridal couples, unless you count royal weddings. But I do like that girl with the book and the annoyed look on her face…
Thank you for sharing your beautiful wedding photos. So gorgeous! My favorite wedding photo is an unplanned moment that is slight blurry of my hubs and I walking holding hands and laughing through Central Park. I think we were both saying at that moment, “Can you believe we did it?”
I think that is the exact same thing we’re saying in the pic coming down the aisle…
You were a beautiful bride. And he was a handsome groom. Thank you for sharing!
Your wedding pictures are just lovely! And I must say you and your hubby look much happier than the people in this historical wedding portraits!
I think my favorite wedding portrait isn’t actually at the wedding, but the black and white photos my grandfather took of my parents a few days after their wedding. They were married by my mom’s brother, a Methodist minister, and no one thought to take pictures. So when my Dad arrived in New Jersey with his new bride my grandfather took them up on the roof of the apartment building he managed and took some photos of them. My Mom was in this gorgeous 1950′s dress with the stiff crinolines under the skirt and my Dad was in his dress Air Force uniform. The pictures are so romantic and they look so in love. Which is rather amazing as they wrote to each other for a year before they met. They had one date. They knew each other (in person) seven days when they married and they were married forty years when my Dad died. But when I look at those pictures I know what romance is all about.