Portrait of an Englishwoman

Holbein the Younger, Hans

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Hans Holbein the Younger. The drawing shows the bust of a woman facing forwards but turned slightly towards the left; similarly her gaze is directed just to the left of the viewer's position. The woman has a melancholy expression. Her mouth is describes only by the line of where her lips meet and she has pronounced eyelashes. She is wearing a cap and dress that belong to the fashions of the time. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 31 HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER (b. 1497; d. 1543) PORTRAIT OF AN ENGLISHWOMAN Collection of Mr. George Salting. (From the Collections of Jon. Richardson, sen., Geo. Knapton (?), the Duke of Sutherland and Lord Ronald Gower.) Black and red chalk, heightened with white, on paper tinted pink with watercolour; cut to the outlines. 28 x 19 cm. (11 x 7 5/8 in.) Genuine portrait drawings of Holbein's English period, apart from the great collection at Windsor, are of extreme rarity, and this is one of the most tender and dignified of all. The sheet has been cut down by the scissors of a vandal, so that Holbein's placing of the head on the paper is lost, but the drawing itself is entirely free from the retouching which disfigures many of the Windsor heads. The high lights on the cheek, nose and eyes are put on with white, which is also used on the coif which covers hair and ears. The outlines of nose, mouth and chin, as well as the eyebrows and lashes, are drawn with the brush in Indian ink. Red chalk is used sparingly on the lips and in the corners of the eyes, and still more sparingly in the modelling [sic] of the face. The band of hair which shows beneath the coif is washed with a yellowish brown. It has been suggested that the portrait is that of Margaret Roper, daughter of Sir Thomas More, who sits prominently in the drawing at Basel for the More family picture. So far as the evidence of that drawing goes, the identification appears possible but not convincing. This is not one of the preliminary studies for the picture itself, which were done on white paper, and if it represents Margaret Roper she must have sat again to Holbein after his return to England in 1531. The drawing has not been reproduced before, nor is it mentioned, so far as I know, in the literature on Holbein, except by Sir Richard Holmes in his preface to Hanfstängl's reproductions of the Windsor drawings (first series). It is probably the 'portrait of a lady,' by Holbein, mentioned as lot 48 of the twelfth night of the Richardson sale, 1746, in which case it was bought by Knapton, whose drawings were sold in 1804. It is not known how it found its way to Trentham. The present owner, by whose kind permission the drawing has been reproduced, acquired it in November, 1905. C. DODGSON."