AN IMAGE of Elizabeth I as a teenager — one of two painted during her lifetime — has emerged from beneath centuries of incompetent touching up by later artists.

The portrait shows the Princess in a rare intimate light before she disappeared behind the mask of her formal portraits as Queen.

The picture, by an unknown artist, is a copy of the only other known portrait of Elizabeth as a teenager, but historians believe that the artist would have seen the Princess and added intimate touches. The original is in the Royal Collection.

David Starkey, the historian and broadcaster, said that the artist had been free to make an accurate portrait. “It corresponds to all descriptions of Elizabeth — the auburn hair, the very dark eyes, the pale skin and the very long fingers,” he said. “It would be extremely unlikely if [the artist] hadn’t seen her. At that point she was a regular figure at court.”

Although the portrait was known to portray Elizabeth, it was thought to be an insignificant copy from the 18th or 19th century.

The importance of the painting, which will be on sale at the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair this week for £800,000, was discovered by Philip Mould, an art dealer and specialist in historical portraits.

When he bought it at auction from a private Spanish vendor, the portrait was obscured by three layers of overpainting. Artists from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries had attempted to touch up the picture by brightening the face and adding side panels to allow them to expand Elizabeth’s sleeves.

Mr Mould suspected that there was a painting hidden beneath because parts of the portrait that had not been overpainted contained colours consistent with 16th-century pigments. He instructed a conservator to remove layers to see whether there was an older portrait.

He also attempted to date the portrait by analysing the wooden panel and the chemical composition of the pigments. The age of wood can be estimated by examining the space between the grain and matching it to weather records. Larger spaces between the lines signify a hotter year.

Both tests suggested a 16th-century portrait. The tree used to make the panel was felled as early as 1546, suggesting that the portrait was completed between 1547 and 1553, when Queen Mary began her reign and portraits of Elizabeth as a teenager would have served no political purpose.

Dr Starkey believes that the painting shows how Elizabeth was learning to use portraiture as a propaganda tool while she lived with her stepmother, Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII.

“We know that Elizabeth is moving in a circle where portraiture is taken seriously. Catherine is making portraits of herself for political purposes. Elizabeth is obviously modelling herself on Catherine at this point.”

The portrait shows a 13-year-old Elizabeth, 12 years before her accession to the throne, as a scholarly Princess with her finger in a book. It was sold at auction in 1932 by the Ramsden family for £54 (£2,500 today). It was recognised as a portrait of Elizabeth, but was thought to have been painted in the 18th or 19th century.

Image conscious

The Ermine Portrait, painted in 1585 by Nicholas Hilliard, is one of the most iconic images of Elizabeth. It currently hangs at Hatfield House