Will the Real Anne Boleyn Please Stand Up?

Warning...if you hate history and hate debating art attributions, this post will bore you. If you love history and trivia, read on!

Not Really Anne Boleyn

I have a recent blog comment from my Art and Soul friend Janet, in which she points out that my recent piece (see two posts previous) called "The Death of Anne Boleyn" does not in fact portray the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII at all. I used the above picture which, as Janet rightly points out, shows a woman in early 17th century costume, much too late a style for Anne.

I do find the above face fascinating and wonder who really posed for this picture. One website says this is a romanticized portrait of Anne by 17th century painter Frans Porbus. Another site says it is not intended to be Anne at all and is attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

Regardless, that's not Anne in my little encaustic collage. (Though I still like the piece.) This got me curious about what portraits I could find that are more likely to be genuine.

Anne Boleyn's portrait appeared on the cover of Life magazine in October 1956. I remember this issue well and think that must have been the beginning of my interest in the six wives of Henry VIII. My impressionable eight year old brain was changed forever by this article by Winston Churchill on the fascinating Tudors.

Anne on Life Cover

The above is the most familiar portrait of Anne, said to be by Hans Holbein. The portrait below is similar, but with a softer face. You can see how different her clothing is from the not-Anne I used in my encaustic piece.

Anne Boleyn again

This drawing, by Holbein is supposed to be of Anne. Here she wears a gable headdress, rather than the French hood she usually sports.

This is supposed to be Anne as well, according to several sites. I do question the clothing, however.

Here's the genuine royal couple. Now compare them to the image below.




This is Not-Henry even more than it's Not-Anne. That's TV for you...

Yet another Anne portrait

My mixed media portrait of Anne from 2007. I copied her signature and created her French hood from a reproduction of a letter Henry sent her, proclaiming his undying love.

If you'd care to find out which wife of Henry VIII you are most like, go here and take this unscientific quiz. According to this, I am most like Catherine Parr, the sixth wife. This pleases me no end, because she survived Henry. She was also quite scholarly and wrote and published a book and edited others. Way to go, Catherine!