Tres Excellent Prince Henry... ( Henry, Duke of Gloucester).

This 1650s line engraving of Henry, Duke of Gloucester (1640-1660) was published by Balthasar Moncornet, the Parisian engraver and print seller known for his extensive series of portrait prints. Though the inscription identifies him as Duke of York, the sitter is correctly Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of Charles I. Captured during the Civil War and held for years under Parliamentary supervision, Henry rejoined the royal family at the Restoration but died of smallpox only months later at the age of twenty. The portrait follows the sober, dignified style typical of mid-17th-century French engravings, translating an earlier painted likeness by an unknown artist into a crisp linear form.