After public fundraising appeal, queen’s portrait will stay in Britain

More than 8,000 help raise $13.1M in preservation effort.

A public appeal to raise 10 million pounds, or $13.1 million, to buy the “Armada Portrait” — one of the bestknown depictions of Queen Elizabeth I — has been successful, the Art Fund, a national fundraising group, has announced in London.

The portrait, painted around 1590 by an unknown artist, celebrates the British navy’s unlikely 1588 victory over the Spanish fleet and is a staple in Britain’s school textbooks. Unusual in its time for its large size and horizontal format, it depicts the queen, bejeweled and regal in front of two seascapes, her right hand resting on a globe.

The painting in question, one of three versions of the portrait, was first owned by Sir Francis Drake, one of the commanders of the British fleet, and subsequently remained in the hands of his descendants, who recently decided to sell the work.

The money resulting from the public appeal “will meet the cost of the painting as well as vital conservation and an extensive national programme to engage audiences around the country with the painting,” a spokeswoman for the Art Fund, Madeline Adeane, said in an email. It will also prevent the portrait from being sold to an international collector.

A major donation of 7.4 million pounds came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, while 8,000 individuals contributed a total of 1.5 million pounds. The Art Fund contributed 1 million pounds and Royal Museums Greenwich gave 400,000 pounds. A total of 10.3 million pounds was raised.

Starting Oct. 11, the portrait will hang in the Queen’s House, on the site of the original Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth I was born.

The Art Fund, which supports the acquisition of paintings for British museums, has been successful in a number of public appeals, notably raising 10 million pounds in 2014 to buy a Van Dyck self-portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in London.