World Leaders on Canvas Trivia Quiz

Answer: King Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII ascended to the English throne on the death of his father in 1509. Henry is probably best remembered today for his six wives, but his 38-year reign was a busy time. The Battle of Flodden in 1513, fought between the English and Scots, resulted in the death of King James IV of Scotland, the last British monarch to die in battle.

Henry's battles with Pope Clement VII over the annulment of his first marriage led to the English Reformation and the formation of the Church of England. The Pope excommunicated both Henry and his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer. Born in 1497 in the city of Augsburg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and now in southwestern Bavaria in Germany, Hans Holbein the Younger was one of the greatest portrait artists of the 16th Century.

He also painted well-known portraits of Henry's son, the future King Edward VI, of two of Henry's wives, Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves, and of Sir Thomas More. The featured portrait of King Henry VIII, which can be seen at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, rather looks like it was used as the model for the images of kings familiar today on modern playing cards.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Born in 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was Emperor of France from 1804 until 1814 and then again briefly in 1815. He has been the subject of paintings by numerous artists: Édouard Detaille painted "Bonaparte at the Siege of Toulon", "Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole", an 1806 work by Baron Antoine-Jean Gros hangs in the Louvre and "Napoleon enters Alexandria" was painted in 1809 by Guillaume-François Colson. The Emperor's greatest military triumph was captured on canvas by François Gérard in 1805: "Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz" now hangs in the Palace of Versailles.
Born in Paris in 1748, Jacques-Louis David is widely considered the preeminent French painter of his era. A supporter of the French Revolution and a friend of Robespierre, he famously painted "The Death of Marat" and drew "Marie Antoinette on the Way to the Guillotine" in 1793. After Napoleon's successful coup d'état in 1799, David painted "Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass" in 1801, "The Coronation of Napoleon" in 1806 and "The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries" in 1812. David's 1805 portrait of Pope Pius VII also hangs in The Louvre in Paris.
Our featured work, "Portrait of Napoleon in Imperial Costume", dating to 1805, is part of the collection at the 'Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille', France's largest art museum outside of Paris.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

Born in 1743 in the parish of Shadwell in the Colony in Virginia in British America, Thomas Jefferson followed Patrick Henry in 1779 to become the second Governor of Virginia. In 1790, he became the first person to serve in the office of the Secretary of State of the United States, in 1797 he became the country's second Vice-President and in 1801 its third President.

He later went on to found the University of Virginia. Born in 1778 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Rembrandt Peale painted portraits of many of America's early political leaders.

His 1854 "Portrait of George Washington" today hands in the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. In 1813, he painted a portrait of the young War of 1812 US Army General William Henry Harrison, who would later go on to become the short-lived 9th U.S. President in 1841, and that portrait can be see today at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C.

Other Peale portraits include First Lady Dolly Madison (in 1817) and former two-time Vice-President John C Calhoun (in 1834).

Answer: King Louis XIV of France

Born in September 1638 in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 20 miles from the center of Paris in the western suburbs, Louis XIV ascended to the throne on the death of his father in May 1643 when he was just four years old. Nicknamed Louis the Great and "The Sun King", he was formally crowned king in 1654 and continued to rule until his death just days before his 77th birthday in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is longer than any other monarch of a major European country.
The alternatives also all enjoyed lengthy reigns: George III in England for just over 59 years (1760-1829), Peter I in Russia more than 43 years (1682-1725), and Philip V in Spain 46 years (with a few months break in the middle) (1700-46).
Born in 1659 in Perpignan, the capital of the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France, Hyacinthe Rigaud was one of the most important portrait painters during the reign of Louis XIV. Our featured work of the King in his coronation costume is the artist's most famous work and is today part of the collection at the Louvre in Paris.

Answer: William Pitt the Younger

Born in 1759 in Hayes, Kent, William Pitt the Younger became Great Britain's youngest ever Prime Minister when he took office aged just 24 following the collapse of the Fox-North coalition in 1783. Serving jointly as Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, The MP for Cambridge University won general elections in 1784, 1790 and 1796 and remained in office until his resignation in 1801. Pitt returned to Downing Street three years later, in May 1804 and remained in office until his death in 1806. Significant events during Pitt's premiership include the passage of the India Act, forming the British East India Company, and the consolidation of Britain's influence in Canada whilst the French were otherwise engaged with their revolution at home. John Hoppner was born in 1758 in the Whitechapel district of east London.

His portrait of Admiral Horatio Nelson, hero of Britain;s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, graces the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth. Hoppner's portrait of a 26-year old Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wellesley of the 33rd Regiment, painted in 1795, today hangs in Stratfield Saye House in northeastern Hampshire, the home of the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.

Answer: Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan was born in 1215, the grandson of the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan. He came to power in 1260, succeeding his older brother Möngke as Khagan, but for the next four years he was engaged in the Toluid Civil War against his younger brother. Already the ruler of much of what is today northern China, in 1271 Kublai Khan declared the "Great Yuan" dynasty which would rule the whole of China (the first foreign dynasty to do so) until 1368. Within 10 years, resistance in the south had been quelled and Kublia Khan thus became the first non-Han Emperor of China.

Although the Mongol Empire at that time still controlled more than one fifth of the world's inhabited land, its influence to the west of the Mongol/Chinese homeland was, however, waning.

The death of Kublai Jhan in 1294 effectively signaled the final days of the largest empire the world had ever seen. Born in 1245 in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, Anige (aka Aniko and Araniko) is the most famous purveyor of trans-Himalayan art.

The court painter for Kublai Khan, he had a profound infuence on Chinese art for many generations after his death in 1305. The featured portrait of Kublai Khan is part of the collection at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Answer: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Born Arthur Wesley in 1769 in Dublin, Ireland, Field Marshall Arthur Wellesley KG GCB GCH PC FRS would become Baron Douro of Wellesley in 1809. He was named Marquess Douro and 1st Duke of Wellington in 1814 shortly before his most famous military victory, against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
After a military career spanning more than 60 battles, Wellington retired as Commander-in-Chief to become British Prime Minister at the age of 58 in 1828, although his administration only lasted just under three years. He returned to the front line, taking over as Prime Minister in a caretaker role for a month in late 1834, simultaneously also doing the jobs of Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.
Born in 1752 in the city of Hull in the north of England, portrait painter Robert Home traveled to India in 1791, following Lord Cornwallis's army on their march to Bangalore. It was in India in 1795 that Home painted our featured portrait of Wellington, which is now part of the collection at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Answer: King Ferdinand II of Aragon

Born in 1452 in the historic town of Sos del Rey Católico in the province of Zaragoza in northeastern Spain, Ferdinand became King of Sicily in 1468 and King of Aragon in 1479, and continued to hold those two positions until his death in 1516. His marriage to Isabella of Castile in 1474 also made him King Ferdinand V of Castile and Leon until her death in 1504. Effectively ruling the whole of Spain as a pair for three decades, Ferdinand and Isabella had a huge influence on world history when they sponsored the first voyage, in 1492, of a Genoan by the name of Christopher Columbus.

It is as a direct result of this endeavor that the vast majority of the people in Central and South America are now Spanish speakers. Nicknamed Ferdinand the Catholic, he is also a major reason why most of South America is today still staunchly Catholic.

The youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella was Catherine of Aragon, born in 1485. She was the first (and by far the longest-serving) wife of King Henry VIII of England and the mother of Queen Mary. Born in 1469 in the city of Reval, now Tallinn the capital of Estonia, Michael Sittow is one of the most important Flemish painters of his era.

The court painter for both the Habsburgs and for Isabella of Castile, his work includes portraits of the young Catherine of Aragon which can now be seen in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Our featured portrait of Ferdinand is also part of the Kunsthistorisches Museum collection. Sittow's other royal portraits also King Christian II of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen) and King Henry VII of England (National Portrait Gallery in London).

Answer: Cosimo di Medici

Born in 1389, in Florence which was then the capital of the Republic of Florence, Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was the founder of the Medici political dynasty. Nicknamed 'Cosimo Il Vecchio' ("Cosimo the Elder") and 'Pater Patriae' ("Father of the Nation") he was the first in a line of 'de facto' rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. Agnolo di Cosimo, born in Florence in 1503, is usually known as Il Bronzino because of his relatively dark skin.

He painted numerous portraits of Cosimo di Medici (one in armor, one as Orpheus) in additiona to our featured work which is now part of the collection at the famous Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.

Answer: Queen Victoria of Great Britain

Born in 1819 in Kensington Palace in London, Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, and the granddaughter of King George III. Her mother was Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. With her father's three older brothers all dying with no surviving children, Victoria ascended to the throne on the death of her uncle, King William IV, in 1837.

She sat on the throne until her death in 1901: her reign of 63 years and 7 months, was the longest by any British monarch and the longest of any female monarch worldwide, but both of those records are only guaranteed to stand until September 9, 2015.

In 1876, Victoria added the title Empress of India. Born in London in 1792, George Hayter was the most notable English portraitist of the Victoria era.

In 1851, Queen Victoria appointed Hayter as "Principal Painter in Ordinary", a position that had begun with Sir Anthony Van Dyck in 1632. James Sant took over the role when Hayter died in 1871. In addition to our featured work, "Princess Victoria of Kent", painted in 1833, Hayter's 1837 "State Portrait of Queen Victoria" are both part of the "Royal Collection".

His 1838 "Queen Victoria seated on the throne in the House of Lords" can be seen at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London. He also painted numerous portraits of British Prime Ministers as well as other members of the royal family.