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Tudor Tears Book

Acrylic Paint, Digitally Edited

Mary Tudor is often seen as a villain of history and yes she did do some very gruesome things during her reign but there was also a great tragedy to her life.   She suffered numerous miscarriages and phantom pregnancies and was never successful in bearing an heir.   This naturally caused her great sorrow and it is the part of her life I wanted to focus on in my portrayal of her in this picture book.

Her personal symbol, one she inherited from her mother, was the pomegranate which ironically also happens to be a symbol of fertility.   I used this theme of the pomegranate as a symbolic representation of her miscarriages:  first of all she holds the beautiful fruit in her hand but when splitting it open Mary realises it is rotten and she breaks down in despair.

The original series is made up of 15 images, above you can see a selection of six of these illustrations.