Oil on canvas, 144.8cm by 193cm.
This is a copy of the Van Dyck at Windsor, painted in 1637.
The children are, from the left: the future Princess Mary of Orange, the mother of William III, the future James II, who was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688\9, the future Charles II, who was restored to the throne in 1660, after eleven years of Parliamentary rule and Princess Elizabeth holding Princess Anne, both of whom died young.
Another version is in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The painting came to Burghley as part of a magnificent bequest from Elizabeth, Countess of Devonshire (1619-1689), to her daughter Anne, Countess of Exeter (1648-1703).
The bequest, recorded in an inventory known as the 1690 Devonshire Schedule, lists: ‘Oyle Colour Pictures…A picture of the Children of King Charles ye ffirst in a White fframe after Vandike.’
