David Starkey and Bendor Grovesnor have argued the case ( here ) for the night gown sketch being Anne. If the woman in the nightgown is Anne, then so is the woman in the hood when you compare them side by side.

holbein-anne-boleyn

Medal reconstruction by Lucy Churchill (website here)

Holbein colouring to look like the NPG portrait by Nieve (Anne Boleyn Files)

“Lute strings vibrate to silence as I watch Caesar with my velvet eyes.”

A line from my Anne Boleyn poem in the book Queen, Jewel, Mistress. I loved writing about all those fascinating women, but Anne Boleyn was always my favourite.

“Ruth Stacey’s poems are exceptional. They evoke voices long silenced, and the very essence of these past lives and the ages in which they were lived. There is so much food for thought here – every line is a joy!”
– Alison Weir

30 responses

Denise Hansen

February 21, 2015

So agree. Also if you compare these with the National Portrait Gallery image of Anne wearing the B necklace you can also see a lot of similarities, especially if you add some colour to the sketches.

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Ruth Stacey

February 21, 2015

Yes, the NPG has the same nose, chin…I would love to see the Holbein paintings that came from these sketches, the colouring of the skin, eyes. He could really capture the personality. One sketch the lady is proud, in the other she seems exhausted. But I think she is the same woman, just one could have been sketched when Henry was besotted and she was secure, 1532 perhaps and the other 1536, post pregnancy/after years of stress and intrigue. I love the mystery!

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lissabryan

February 22, 2015

Reblogged this on Lissa Bryan and commented:
This is incredible!

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lissabryan

February 22, 2015

This is a WONDERFUL resource! I’ve never seen such a good side-by-side comparison of the two sketches. Previously, I hadn’t believed the sketch in the gable hood to be Anne, but now that I see them together, I agree with you that it’s almost certainly the same lady at different stages in her reign. Bravo!

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Ruth Stacey

February 22, 2015

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/20631910@N03/3750119772/
This link is the painting at Hever Castle based on the gable hood sketch.

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bunnypudding

February 22, 2015

Reblogged this on BunnyPudding.

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lucychurchill

February 23, 2015

Ruth, this was a great idea and you’ve done an excellent job.
I was utterly sure that the drawings depicted two different women, but I have to say… I’m not as certain as I was. The bridge of the nose is more pronounced in the Windsor Holbein, but still it’s a beguiling argument.

When I fell in love with Anne as a subject, I was sure the BM sketch depicted Anne as this image reflects the confident, feisty image I have of her. However, the Windsor sketch looks much closer to the Moost Happi medal. This is generally not the image that ‘Anne Boleyn fans’ want of Anne as she is not a beauty here (though nor was she in contemporary descriptions). Nevertheless Eric Ives stated that such a commemorative medal could only have been produced by royal command, and so one can suppose that Anne (who was known to be take great care in how she presented herself), was happy with this contemporary portrait.

Anne was pregnant when her portrait was shown on the Moost Happi medal and this no doubt accounts for the great emphasis that is made of her breasts, which were noted for being ‘not much raised’. It may well be that the Windsor sketch shows Anne during one of her later pregnancies, displaying increased weight and fatigue.

In any case, thank you Ruth for this lovely visual experiment, it’s beautifully done!

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1. Ruth Stacey
  
  February 24, 2015
  
  Lucy, I really appreciate your thoughts about the comparison.
  
  I stood in front of the BM sketch at the Holbein exhibition and it such a beautiful thing.
  
  And you are drawn to the woman’s eyes: Holbein really emphasised them like they were her most arresting feature.
  
  It’s the comparison of the eyes / brows that convinces me it’s the same person.
  
  Thank you for your comment!
  
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  1. lucychurchill
    
    February 25, 2015
    
    The lady’s eyes are just so blue though…Anne’s eyes were described by contemporary viewers as ‘dark’ , which I presume would be brown. And blue eyes don’t often come with the slightly swarthy skin that she was said to have had… ..
  2. Ruth Stacey
    
    February 25, 2015
    
    I agree, the blue eyes are wrong. I can only think the wash of colour was added later.
Ann L. Etheridge

February 24, 2015

I’ve been saying this for years. The Holbein drawings are the same woman. It is obvious. (They are ALL the same woman by different artists done in different media.) My only disagreement is that the gold color on the nightgown sketch is part of the cap–in that case it is not. This is not really an issue for a number of reasons: first, many of Holbein’s sketched here over drawn and over painted by others later on. This yellow wash might be the result of this; it may have been another color that has since faded, if it is original; and most importantly, there is no first-hand description of Anne Boleyn as black haired, or even dark haired. The image of her mother that Elizabeth commissioned for her ring has red hair and I submit that Anne very probably had reddish air, too. The only thing we know for sure about Anne is that she was ‘not one of the handsomest women in the world. She is of middling stature, with a swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the King’s great appetite, and her eyes, which are black and beautiful.” No other person who saw her while she was alive ever described her as having black or even dark brown hair.

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Ruth Stacey

February 24, 2015

Ann, I think you are right about the red hair. Certainly the ring had a woman with auburn hair. Wyatt’s muse was a ‘brunet’ but that could be all shades of brown, chestnut, red. Just not a blonde. I agree the wash could have faded or been painted over later by an over zealous apprentice. I thought it looked like fabric and too golden to be blonde hair (more like but on closer inspection there does seem to be strands sketched in. If it is hair, I love the informal quality of this drawing. It is very intimate; so relaxed, in her nightclothes. Perhaps only a queen could be so daring?

There is a quote here about Wyatt’s ‘Brunet’ muse:

“Speculation about Wyatt’s relationship with Anne Boleyn has gone on since Elizabeth’s reign, with numerous autobiographical references proposed in his writing. In fact, Wyatt refers to Anne in only four genuine poems.

The clearest is ‘If waker care, if sudden pale colour’, written after he had fallen for Elizabeth Darell, whom he calls Phyllis: ‘If thou ask whom, sure since I did refrain Brunet that set my wealth in such a roar The unfeigned cheer of Phyllis hath the place That Brunet had: she hath and ever shall.’ That Anne was Brunet is clear because the correction shows that Wyatt originally wrote ‘Her that did set our country in a roar’.

This does indicate that he had been one of Anne’s suitors. The other genuine poems suggest that on Wyatt’s side his feelings went beyond the flirtatious game of courtly love but were not reciprocated by Anne. Already married but separated from his wife, Wyatt had nothing to offer.”

Book of Sir Thomas Wyatt British Library
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/henryviii/greatmatter/thomwyatt/

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linda

March 22, 2015

I know the photos don’t picture her as beautiful, yet Cavendish described her as a beautiful lady, he was one of the few who saw her in real life, and wrote a book, about the life of Wolsey.This of course would in include Anne, since she and Wolsey weren’t friends in the least.

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bumblebee

March 27, 2015

Except that figure 2 appears to have blue eyes and I don’t think Holbein would have changed them.
Check out Ambrosius Bensen’s “Elegant Couples Dancing”. The dancer to the right looks a lot like Figure 1 and is, interestingly, not dancing with the male figure that resembles Henry. I think it was painted in the 1540’s and might be a subtle inference (if it actually represent English couples) that Anne’s interests were elsewhere.
An additional note: Anne has been portrayed in many portraits with protruding eyes – probably from the slander “goggled eyed whore”. But “goggle” in the 16th century meant “squinty”. Her eyes were dark – but not necessarily huge – as Figure 1 supports.

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amy

June 2, 2015

I would love to believe that the two Holbein sketches show the same woman, but no, the noses are completely different as are the brows and shape of the lips. Too different. It could be that neither of these sketches are Anne; art historians suppose that the descriptive text was added over a century later. Also, Anne was described by more than one contemporary as having very dark eyes.

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1. Ruth Stacey
  
  June 9, 2015
  
  I hope an original Holbein painting that he did in her lifetime is discovered one day and we can see her painted with his great skill. Would be incredible! Surely one escaped Henry’s wrath…
  
  Reply
Leslie

August 20, 2015

I am a little late to leave a reply, but I felt compelled to write something after viewing this post. This side by side comparison has left me quite certain this is the same woman. I have always believed, for the same reasons David Starkey and Bendor Grovesnor have argued, that the Windsor sketch was Anne. After seeing this post, I now believe the BM sketch is a younger Anne. Holbein spent two periods of his life in England (1526-8 and 1532-43), so perhaps the BM sketch shows Anne as she was around 1528 when Henry was besotted and she was secure in his affections, and her confidence was evident (as many contemporary sources imply). The Windsor sketch could depict Anne in 1536, pregnant for the third time and less secure in the King’s graces. I know I look slightly different than I did 8 years ago. The fundamental likeness is there, however, in both sketches – the brow, chin, cheeks, lips. The eye color could have been modified over the years as well, but the eyelids appear the same. Thank you for this post! How intriguing!

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Ruth Stacey

August 20, 2015

Leslie, thanks for commenting. The two date periods Holbein was in England would match the different stages of her life (which reflects in the two sketches) so thank you for pointing that out. I think the likeness is very close, taking in the fact one image is more profile and different moods (pride and melancholy/tiredness).

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The problem with the Holbein sketch of “Anne” is that there’s really no definite evidence that it actually is her, just like with any other portray. The inscription is written in eighteen century lettering and John Cheke does not seem to

December 11, 2015

[…] known to receive visitors in the mornings dressed in her luxurious satin and fur nightgowns. The other sketch identified as Anne in a gable hood matches this one almost perfectly and is a […]

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Jill

September 8, 2016

Holbein’s ‘The Duchess of Suffolk’ appears to me to be the same lady as depicted in the ‘older’ Anne sketch.

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Katrin Schreiber

January 20, 2018

Also zu all dem gut und schön Anne war eine sehr Selbstbewusste Frau. Und sie wurde von Holbein öffter gemalt. Anne wurde als Dunkel beschrieben, aber nicht weil sie dunkle Haare und haut hatte sondern weil sie glaubten dass sie eine Hexe sei, die den König buchstäblich verführte um Missetaten in ihrem Auftrag zu begehen. Das Bildnisse von Anne wurde nachträglich geschwärzt. Um ihr Ansehen zu besudeln.

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1. Ruth Stacey
  
  July 11, 2018
  
  Yes I agree with this. In the ring owned by Elizabeth, Anne was portrayed with golden red hair. Wyatt called her a Brunet, but that could describe anything except blonde.
  
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sparkypus

April 27, 2020

Fascinating..but I believe the lady in the nightgown is Jane Seymour…compare this drawing with the famous portrait of Jane,,

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Janice Pavlisko Robinson

October 29, 2021

I don’t know whether Figure 2, (the one on the far left) is Anne Boleyn or not, but I’ve always wanted to believe that it is, because it’s more realistic than any other portrait of her I’ve seen. In this one, she looks like someone you’d see waiting on line at Starbucks and not look twice at.

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Dr A J Taylor

June 4, 2022

Professor Isidor Greenwald, MD, wrote of the links between the ‘goitre’ – a swelling of the thyroid, caused either as an auto-immune condition or a deficiency of salt – and ‘polydactyly’ – extra digits. Though historians suggest that Anne probably didn’t have extra digits, there is evidence she might have.

And her complexion and skin tones were described as yellowish; and possibly as psoriatic. This, also, suggests Greenwald, connected to the same syndrome. Anne lost most of her pregnacies and Professor Warnicke suggests her last child had birth defects. Tragically, he died, and Cromwell had Anne sent to the execution stand.

And: finally: another consequence of the syndromw is that a woman might suffer defects meaning a full relationship is not physically possible. Under biochemical genetics, this may well have been inherited by Elizabeth I. The rest, we know.

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ANON

July 24, 2022

The woman titled Anne Boleyn Queen is her. It matches accounts of the Spanish Court who saw her in person. She had a large double chin or Wren and was no great beauty. It was Anne’s personality that won the king over not her looks. Anne’s sister was considered the beauty never Anne.

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Barbra ann rowe

August 22, 2022

The top sketch is NOT Anne boleyn. She has obviously blue eyes, Anne had brown eyes. She has dark eyebrows and lashes, Anne had blondish eyebrows and lashes, almost so light you can’t see them from distance. The nose and lips are very different. You’ll see similar features between several sketches because Anne boleyn was first cousin and relation directly and closely to many others including the Howards and Seymours as well as many other nobles. The cheeks and chin is not a feature since stringed caps were often tied and hair usually was never shown so it effects the way we view the facial features. Hans Holbein sketches are accurate and unidentified ones were not important enough to label so likely just that, practice, not for official portrait replication of nobles.

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Barbra ann rowe

September 5, 2022

It’s not anne Boleyn. She had brown eyes and a protruding too she did not have blue eyes she did not have brown or dark eyebrows and eyelashes but she did have very many women at court that she was related to by first cousin including Jane Seymour and Katherine Howard. The Holbein sketches are the best and most realistic version of faces from 500 years ago that you’re ever going to get even with the exclusion of holbein’s own oil paintings which he was good at but standard was to paint women and men to look more exaggerated, more porcelain, smaller noses bigger foreheads smaller lips than what they really had and those are features that really define every single person on the planet when you change those you don’t have a good description of what that person look like you have a good description of what they wanted people at the time to see them as. The sketches are realistic to then use as sitting portraits and to make the painting and copies of after death, because they didn’t want them to have to sit so long especially a busy, likely pregnant, queen. Trust that the blu eyes, pointy nosed, younger, dark eyebrows and lashes female is not Anne and very well could infact be a cousin or Mary Boleyn. They often had double chins because of the tie from the headwear pulling the skin and fat forward and at that time even the hairline wasn’t usually shown in public so what looks like hair, is typically a golden orange fabric edging to the English caps females wore.

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Sandra Sue LeMere

September 5, 2022

Yes!!! Exactly!!! Still cool to see the huge differences side by side of the two. They would never have left a Queens sketch unidentified anyways.

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bjr

July 7, 2025

Thanks for this info and keeping anne’s memory alive

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