Anne Boleyn: The Windsor Sketch by Hans Holbein
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- Does the Windsor sketch by Hans Holbein the Younger depict Queen Anne Boleyn? Join me for a deep dive into this fascinating portrait. #AnneBoleyn #Holbein #hansholbein #hansholbeintheyounger #tudor #tudorhistory #arthistory #16thcenturyart #henryviii #sixwives #sixwivesofhenryviii
Wonderful explanation of why this is probably Queen Anne! Thank you!
Any image done by Hans Holbein during her lifetime can definitely be taken as a true and accurate representation of her. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the real face of Anne Boleyn
A splendid mini-documentary with actual RESEARCH to back it up! It's certainly a compelling argument. Thank you Dr Emmerson.
Yes, I believe this sketch and the other one in the British Museum are both of Anne. I feel this may be Anne’s famous black nightdress and that it was painted for Henry as sort of a 16th century ‘boudoir’ portrait, maybe when she was soon to go into confinement, as a remembrance to Henry. Possibly she was afraid she could die during childbirth and wanted to give him something to remember her by, or maybe she wanted to remind Henry of their love, hoping that would keep him faithful. Maybe it was when she was pregnant with Elizabeth, or possibly during one of her later pregnancies.
The hair is what made me always think it was some other woman and not Anne. But you may have convinced me that this is her!! 😍❤️🔥
To me this sitter looks exactly how I imagined Anne would look. Self assured and attractive almost haughty. Holbein has captured a lot in this sketch.
That's interesting, because to me she looks unutterably sad
How exciting to have research backed evidence of a likely contemporaneous portrait of Queen Anne. Thank you for the video.
WOW! You've convinced me. Congrats to Natalie Grueninger for the research discovery. And to you for your compelling argument. I have long felt that the Most Happy Medal, the Chequers Ring and the Holbein nightie are the Holy triumverate of Anne images. Together they make a compelling argument. This was thrilling thank you.
Loved this!
So interesting. It would make sense her being pregnant too, women do often put fat around the neck and face when pregnant and that does appear to be the case here. Also her being in casual clothing as she might want to be comfortable in the later stages of her pregnancy. It could be an intimate recognition or marking of that pregnancy.
If you compare an earlier sketch of what is also considered to be Anne Boleyn by Holbein the younger to George Boleyn (also by Holbein) there are striking similarities in features - suggesting that the sitters might be related. Might there be two sketches of Anne? One as the Lady Anne and the other as Queen Anne.
Great question! Sadly, there really isn't any evidence to suggest that the sketch often identified as George is him. It is only it's resemblance to the British Museum sketch - labelled as Anne in the 17th century - that people have used to suggest it could be George. The issue then is that we don't know who, in the 17th century, identified the British Museum sketch as Anne. What we can be sure of is that the British Museum sketch is on pink-primed paper, and therefore was created after 1532.
I do believe it's Anne. I think it resembles the Chequers ring. The person's hair in the Chequers ring also appears to be more along the lines of red/auburn/strawberry blonde hair. Doesn't red hair suit Anne? Of course! I can't imagine her with any other hair color. Thank you so much! It's so wonderful to get a glimpse into the past and a glimpse of Anne from this fabulous Holbein.
There is one more compelling argument to make: compare this portrait to that of Elizabeth 1 the Weiss gallery portrait and there is no doubt in my mind that the Holbein sketch is Anne Boleyn. There are just too many similarities in the face to be a coincidence.
Dr. Emmerson, I’m glad you have your own channel now. I first saw you on another's channel, and she talked over you and cut you off constantly. She was just a Tudor history enthusiast, but I want to hear what you, the expert has to say! Thanks❤
Thank you! Your channel just showed up in my feed. ❤❤
Bravo, Dr. Emmerson! I've been making these arguments for years based on my own research and intuition. It's nice to have someone agree with me, at last. Now compare this sketch to the other Holebing sketch. When you lay them over top of each other, everything matches. They both are the same woman.
"The other"? Which one do you mean?
Yet, you spelled his name wrong.
I've always hoped that this was a sketch of Anne Boleyn and I've become convinced of it over the years, but this has got to be the most convincing argument that I've ever heard. I'm sure now that this is almost definitely a true likeness of her. Thank you Dr Emmerson 🙂
Very compelling. It is a beautiful image. Thank you
Thank you!
The chalk marks in the hair are fascinating.
Aren't they amazing? I wish we could see the full extent of Holbein’s work in this area, but I'm so pleased that these few marks survive!
@DrOwenEmmerson I have never read or heard mention of these colored chalk marks, so I had one foot firmly in the camp that this was not Queen Anne's portrait. Funny how a few little marks could change perspective and minds!
If you haven't done a collaboration with Dr. Kat (Reading the Past), you absolutely should 🤩
Agreed 💯
I collect old etchings, and I believe I have found two Holbeins of Anne that were copied many times. It is difficult to know what the originals were really like. They consistently have the same clothing and postures, however. They always credit Holbein, and the ones I find credible were done before the late 18th century. Anything from the Victorian period is usually redone to match their ideals of beauty, so I generally overlook that era. I have one of Anne from 1670. Have you ever looked at some of Hollar's etchings?
I think the Windsor portrait was done while Anne was pregnant with Elizabeth. If I was the Queen of England, pregnant and uncomfortable, swollen with water weight, and grumpy as all get out, you better believe I would make my portrait artist (who I or my husband is paying) draw me in my luxurious fur-collared dressing gown. It might not be considered “proper,” but it’s better not to argue with your patron, especially when she’s pregnant.
In my opinion Holbein's sketches are far livelier than his oil paintings.
I think there is a definite similarity between the eyes of this lady, and those of Elizabeth as an adult.
4:25 why not what we call today a strawberry blonde? It looks like her because I've seen her portrait in Queen Elizabeth's ring
Why do we spell Anne's last name Boleyn? It appears spelled a variety of ways: Bullein, Bullen, etc. In the History Hit documentary on her book of hours, it looked like Anne herself didn't spell it this way. How did historians land on this spelling?
Possibly she dressed comfortably just for the sitting…then he added the more ornate clothing for the painting.
I think I see daughter Elizabeth in this sketch. It feels like its Anne to me.
Yep - that image looks very like the stamp on ‘The Moost Happi’ medal which has been constantly pedalled as the only contemporary likeness of Anne Boleyn. She definitely wasn’t much of a looker but she made up for it by throwing a lot of tantrums and being generally unpleasant to those who didn’t share her own high opinion of herself. Wasn’t a Wyatt totes in love with the tedious old horse? Maybe he secretly commissioned a picture of Anne in her nightie and that’s why the family coat of arms was on the back of the sketch?
It has been suggested that the full, fatter chin may have been due to pregnancy weight gain.....
Yes. The Nidhall portrait is Anne too.The clothes prove it. Anne, the queen would not wear the B necklace. That painting has the ab pin and the queen consort necklace.
I have always believed that to somehow be Jane Seymour. I just don't know.
That looks like the side view Of Queen Jane
The facial features between the dark-eyed Anne (seen here) and Holbein’s sketch of the blue-eyed Jane do not allign, so we can be sure that Sir John Cheke - who knew both queens and identified both sketches - didn't mix these sketches up.
She does resemble the face on the Most Happy medal but even so I'm not convinced this is Anne. If the hair had eroded it would have created a visible smudge and why did this erosion just affect this area? Also Anne's eyes were described as black but these irises are clearly brown and not at all dark.
I think when a man (John Cheke) who saw Anne and says it’s her, we do have to give their identification our utmost attention. Eyes actually can never be black, and if you study Holbein’s sketches vs the final portraits, he often applied the actual colour of a sitters eyes on the final piece, and merely shaded the preparatory drawing to show form. A good example of this being Lady Audley, where her eyes are shaded with the dominant pigment Holbein used to complete the preparatory drawing (a brown) whereas the finished painting shows blue/grey eyes. Chalk doesn’t seep into the paper in any way, and the hair is the only area where chalk was applied, built up in layers. Bartalozzi’s earlier copy of the sketch clearly shows that it originally had significant amounts of brown, red, and black throughout this area, with sadly only a few strokes left.
@@DrOwenEmmerson Thanks for the clarification. It's interesting that the hair in the Bartalozzi portrait is almost the same tint as that of the Chequers ring, assuming some of the brown had rubbed off. That portrait does have dark eyes, also the face is v similar to this one. Really enjoying these videos btw!
One source reported that Anne had “a wen under her chin”, I wonder if it could have referred to the double-chin on the lady sketched here. Of course, if the source were Sanders, this can be discounted he was extremely hostile to Anne’s memory and reported only some hostile rumors he heard, he never even met her, and he wrote only anti-Protestant propaganda. This intimate sketch might have captured her, or another lady, in a state of advanced pregnancy, which might explain the double-chin. Sometimes these are hereditary and occur even on very thin people (like me), sometimes they’re quite minor until weight gain. I don’t know of any contemporary sources saying that Anne had a double-chin, and this is very noticeable. Sanders isn’t at all credible as a source.
I find it interesting that, whoever this is, is shown in a state of undress. If this is Anne, could it have been done while she was preparing for her execution?
It’s a very interesting thought, but I would hazard a guess at it being almost impossible to have been then. William Kingston, the constable of the Tower, was tasked with writing daily reports to Cromwell of what happened and what was said in the Queen’s apartments during Anne’s imprisonment. The only people who we know visited her were Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and her almoner.
@@DrOwenEmmerson What can I say? I'm a romantic, obviously.
Interestingly, I've seen some people suggest this was actually Jane Seymour....
Yes, absolutely! Wonderfully, Holbein both sketched and painted Seymour (you can see them both in the video) and this sitter has a very different facial structure, and different eye colour too.
@DrOwenEmmerson Another point to consider would be the fact that no paintings of Jane had ever been done using this sketch as a pattern. Also, if any painted pieced actually were completed, none of them seem to have survived, which may also be a clue. Of course, my reasoning may not be correct... Is it known when the sketches were labelled by Cheke? I can't seem to be able to find this info anywhere.
@@DrOwenEmmerson you said in your video on other alleged Anne sketch that when it comes to Holbein's sketches eyecolor doesn't mean much and he did in fact sketch blue eyes as dark.
@@bmp2791 Yes, but it does matter when we have the corresponding final portrait which Holbein created, to which he has added blue pigment too also.
@@whitewillows2916 We do, yes. Cheke labelled them in 1542.
Have always thought this was Anne... perhaps during pregnancy. Eyes downcast reading a book or the Bible.
She was insecure of her nose. Looks like she tried to make it look less prominent by setting back her head, giving her a double chin. All her official portraits show a more subtle dorsal hump, probably at her request.
It looks like Jane same chin
We have a sketch and paintings by Holbein of Jane, and she had blue eyes, not brown as Anne has here. Her chin was also thin and flat at the end, rather than rounded. Indeed, when mapped onto one another, none of the features match at all. Moreover, Sir John Cheke (who identified the sketches) knew both Anne and Jane, so was hardly likely to mix them up.
Jane was a distant cousin of Anne's, I believe. If so, that would explain any similarity. Sometimes cousins can look even more similar to one another than siblings.
@@helkatww3992 oh ok thank you
It looks like the same woman to me
I think it's Jane Seymour
It cannot be Jane Seymour for numerous reasons. Firstly, Holbein both sketched and painted Jane, and he captured a blue-eyed woman whose facial features do not align with his sketch of a dark-eyed Anne Boleyn. Sir John Cheke, who knew both Anne and Jane, identified both sketches. He was a contemporary eyewitness, employed to educate the children of both Anne and Jane, so his identification holds considerable weight. These are measurably different faces, identified by someone who had seen both women.
She has a goiter. That’s shown on the portrait
That's not a goiter. Goiters are a swelling of the thyroid gland, which is situated much lower down in the neck.