The painting was previously incorrectly attributed to the »French School«. It had been stored in Hampton Court Palace for over 100 years and was in very poor condition. A new examination should be carried out to determine its origin more precisely. The expertise of art historian Niko Munz and a team of curators from the Royal Collection now unraveled the mystery of the painting. The team investigated the whereabouts of artworks suspected to have been lost or sold from the royal collection after Charles I was executed in 1649.
The latter owned seven paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654), one of the first women painters to be commercially successful. For a long time, however, only her Self-Portrait as an Allegory of Painting (1630) was considered to have survived from these seven. After close examination in storage, the curators were able to connect the description of Susanne and the Elders to a neglected canvas now attributed to Artemisia. Evidence for their suspicions manifested itself after restoration in the uncovered mark »CR« (Carolus Rex) on the reverse of the painting, indicating an earlier affiliation with Charles I (1600-1649). Through official records, the history of the artwork could now be traced back to its commission in 1638-1639 by Henrietta Maria, the king's wife. It hung above the mantelpiece in her retreat room.
After the first restoration in 1660, the painting was returned to Charles II, the king's son, and hung in Somerset House. A watercolor drawing from 1819 shows the work on a wall in the Queen's bedroom at Kensington Palace. By this time, Artemisia's reputation had faded, and the work was eventually moved to Hampton Court Palace. The latest record indicates that the painting underwent a restoration in 1862, which at the time included an intensive overpainting, before it was forgotten. Now the rare new discovery is on public display at Windsor Castle, along with Gentileschi's well-known self-portrait.
